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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by gurl22 on September 21, 2005, at 22:39:50
I have been taking 30mg of paxil for years.. with the change of my stress level, my doctor told me to stop taking the 30mg (as it is not working for me anymore) and put me on 20mg of Paxil and 37.5mg of Effexor XR.. I have been taking the new meds for only a week now, and feel: not able to handle any type of stress/extremely anxious/crying easily/my head feels more "cloudy/fuzzy" than usual,not able to think clearly, multi-task.. when I take the pills, which I take at night because they make me realllly drowsy, my breathing worsens, feel out of breath, heart beats fast/irregular.... just wondering if anyone is on the same meds.. or could give me any advice regarding this... thank you so much...
Posted by Emily Elizabeth on September 22, 2005, at 0:26:32
In reply to any feedback would be great.., posted by gurl22 on September 21, 2005, at 22:39:50
Consult w/ your doc, but it sounds like you may be experiencing some withdrawal from dropping down on the Paxil so quickly. Although, theoretically, the Effexor should cover for the paxil decrease, in reality it doesn't always pan out that way. I personally switched from paxil to prozac very quickly b/c it was supposed to be okay to do that (according to what my pdoc read) but it was a disaster. I needed to go back up on the paxil and back down more slowly. Paxil is one of the worst meds to get off of, expecially if you have been on it for a while.
Call your doc to see if this is okay, but I'd go back up 5mg's of the paxil for a little while before going back down again (doc can rx 10mg tabs which can be split).
Good luck,
EE
Posted by gurl22 on September 22, 2005, at 8:04:20
In reply to Re: any feedback would be great.., posted by Emily Elizabeth on September 22, 2005, at 0:26:32
Thank you very much my dear for your time and thoughts.. I think you're right.. I am going to see my doc... thanks again
Posted by blueberry on September 22, 2005, at 17:09:59
In reply to any feedback would be great.., posted by gurl22 on September 21, 2005, at 22:39:50
When I'm having problems, like recently, I spend a ton of time on the web researching stuff at pubmed and google. Apparently there are a lot of clinical studies and case reports where people who either lost effectiveness from paxil or had intolerable side effects experienced improvement of both effects and side effects by being switched to escitalopram...lexapro. Just a thought. Also, lexapro showed faster onset of action and fewer side effects than effexor, and was even superior to effexor sometimes, and often required lower doses.
But who knows, we all respond so differently. These are just overall generalizations I have seen on the web.
I don't like effexor, because there are just too many people, as evidenced here, that have too many problems with it. It does work well for some people, but it seems like whenever someone has a complaint about an antidepressant, effexor pops up over and over again.
Posted by spriggy on September 22, 2005, at 17:19:04
In reply to Re: any feedback would be great.., posted by blueberry on September 22, 2005, at 17:09:59
and then try to wean back down to that amount?
My mom takes Paxil and it was a nightmare to come off of. I wonder if you're having Paxil withdraws (you can feel like you're dying!).
Posted by blueberry on September 22, 2005, at 17:19:14
In reply to any feedback would be great.., posted by gurl22 on September 21, 2005, at 22:39:50
You might consider escitalopram...lexapro...instead. I have just overall generalizations, but there are clinical studies where people were switched from paxil to lexapro with an improvement of symptoms and an improvement in side effects.
But we all respond differently. I just figure if a med makes me feel like crap right from the get go, my body is telling me it doesn't want that molecule.
If you've been on paxil for a long time and it just isn't doing the job anymore, it's just my opinion that maybe it's time for something completely new to replace it. I think over the long haul our bodies somehow adjust to certain medication molecules to where no matter what we do we can never get that molecule to work like it used to. Time for a new molecule. But that's just an opinion. 20mg lexapro has been shown in clinical studies to be more effective than 20mg paxil and with lessened side effects.
Posted by Emily Elizabeth on September 22, 2005, at 17:26:42
In reply to Re: any feedback would be great.., posted by blueberry on September 22, 2005, at 17:19:14
I just noticed in your post that a study was comparing 20mg paxil with 20 mg lex---isn't that about 2x as much lex as paxil? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to compare 40mg of paxil to 20 mg of lex? I know that it isn't exactly possible to compare one drug's dose to another (except maybe celexa and lex) but my impression is that lex is meant to be 2x as strong as paxil. For example, the biggest pill available for paxil is 40mg, while for lex it is 20mgs. I was on paxil before and am on Lex now, so the study that you mentioned caught my eye. I also know that tends to be a way that drug companies fix their results to make their products look good.
Best,
EE
Posted by Phillipa on September 22, 2005, at 21:56:22
In reply to Re: any feedback would be great.. » blueberry, posted by Emily Elizabeth on September 22, 2005, at 17:26:42
Wow another lexapro thread compared to paxil. i was on l0mg of paxil and just kept cutting down. The only side effect for me was when I just stopped Brain zaps. Fondly, Phillipa
This is the end of the thread.
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