Paroxetine withdrawal help
Hi all
So I've been trying to taper off 30mg a day of Paxil/Paroxetine for about 5 months now. I've been doing 15mg every two days for a while, so doc has prescribed 20mg a day of fluoxetine (prozac) to help. I've just taken my second day of prozac, but am having horrible withdrawal side effects such as brain buzzes, acute anxiety, feeling very dizzy and unsteady...
How long should these side effects last and should the prozac help to relieve these symptoms? In the past, I've just taken half a paroxetine tablet and the side effects correct themselves, but now I'm off it, I can't do that and I don't want it to interfere with the prozac I am now on.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Re: Paroxetine withdrawal help
Quote:
Originally Posted by
alcopop
So I've been trying to taper off 30mg a day of Paxil/Paroxetine for about 5 months now. I've been doing 15mg every two days for a while,
Tapering by skipping doses is not a good idea, imho. It can be necessary with the SNRI doluxetine which has a short half-life, a limited range of pill doses and no way of cutting them, but for all other ADs it is better to just reduce the daily dose. This is even more so with short half-life ADs such as paroxetine as skipping doses often sets up a roller-coaster effect which many with anxiety disorders find unnerving.
Quote:
so doc has prescribed 20mg a day of fluoxetine (prozac) to help. I've just taken my second day of prozac, but am having horrible withdrawal side effects such as brain buzzes, acute anxiety, feeling very dizzy and unsteady...
How long should these side effects last and should the prozac help to relieve these symptoms?
So the paroxetine was stopped completely and replaced by fluoxetine? If so, the problem comes back to paroxetine's short half-life (~20 h - with no active metabolite to extend its activity) and fluoxetine's very long one (~6 days, plus ~16 days for its active metabolite which does most of the work). Most of the paroxetine is out of your system but it's going to take a while for fluoxetine plasma levels to build up. Generally, overnight switches between SSRIs is relatively smooth, but paroxetine to fluoxetine is the exception for which a cross taper over a couple of weeks is the better way to go, imo.
Quote:
In the past, I've just taken half a paroxetine tablet and the side effects correct themselves, but now I'm off it, I can't do that and I don't want it to interfere with the prozac I am now on.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I suggest you talk to your GP about changing to a cross taper.
Ian
Re: Paroxetine withdrawal help
Quote:
Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
...I suggest you talk to your GP about changing to a cross taper.
Ian
Oh God yes, was very hard to get off that one and took slow taper and meds to stabilize blood pressure. Trying to remember as it wa 2009. Your body will need time to adjust and try not to worry and you can replace it with something that is better than that one. Jeez used to have a forum for just paxil progress and people would talk. Not sure if that is still there; many years ago. I'll check :)
Good luck..
Re: Paroxetine withdrawal help
