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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by LynnPerley on August 14, 2005, at 0:11:15
Hello all - it's been a while - in quick summary I unsuccessfully tried to wean off of Effexor XR and found myself depressed again. Went back up to 150mg Effexor plus 20 mg daily of Ritalin for about six months, then belatedly realized I had continued to crash and burn back to a very depressive state. I took myself up to 225mg Effexor until I got in to see the psychiatrist. When I saw her I expressed my concern about Effexor - it helped quite a bit to get me back to a daily function when I needed it a few years ago, especially when I had a large anxiety component due to my husband being deployed for the army reserve, but it really dumbs me down and demotivates me. The doc suggested adding Prozac and increasing the ritalin dosage to 40 - 60 mg a day to see if that helps, with the idea that we could taper off the effexor from there. I would appreciate any personal perspective and experience!
Prozac was the first SSRI I took and I could not tolerate it due to bruxism - that was prescribed by a family doc and he never suggested a combo. I was able to get rid of the bruxism from effexor after the psychiatrist suggested taking some buspar temporariy, so I am expecting I can handle it this time around. My doctor also suggested that combining Prozac with 225 mg effexor might not cause the same degree of bruxism.
I start the package on Monday 8/15 - I am finishing up a two week round of prednisone due to a skin condition and we want to start "fresh" with this new combo - by the way, the initial 60 mg prednisone I took made me feel better than I have felt in years! due to the hypomanic side effects I had!
Posted by med_empowered on August 14, 2005, at 20:37:58
In reply to Adding Prozac to Effexor and Ritalin?, posted by LynnPerley on August 14, 2005, at 0:11:15
hey! Its kinda common when someone is on higher-end effexor doses to taper a little bit, then add in prozac as the dosage gets lower...at low doses, effexor is mostly an SSRI, so the prozac seems to help in this regard...plus, it has a long half-live, so once the effexor taper is over, you can just stop taking the Prozac. I think adding in extra ritalin is a good call, since stimulants really do help people tremendously with certain types of depression. But...maybe you could add it in gradually? I mean, taper the Effexor a bit, up the ritalin, up the prozac...keep going till the effexor is withdrawn and the prozac/ritalin doses are sufficient to keep your problems under control. In my experience, switching antidepressants works best that way...gradual taper of drug A, with the gradual introduction of drug B after drug A has been tapered a bit. But...it can be tricky and time consuming, so your docs plan sounds like it good be really fast and really efficient, unless you have some sort of adverse reaction to the drug combo. Good luck!
Posted by LynnPerley on August 21, 2005, at 15:37:32
In reply to Adding Prozac to Effexor and Ritalin?, posted by LynnPerley on August 14, 2005, at 0:11:15
It's been a week now, At first, the bruxism returned, as well as some painful headaches that I think were tense muscle related (mostly on one side of my head). I also had some muscle cramping at night that kept me awake for the first two days. I feel a lot better now, and the bruxism has subsided. Without the Ritalin, I'm still a little demotivated. I have to remind myself to take it. The Prozac has definitely taken away some of the Effexor fogginess and laziness.
This is the end of the thread.
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