Posted by angelrose on October 28, 2000, at 23:41:08
In reply to Re: Meridia and Prozac, fatal combo?, posted by JohnL on October 28, 2000, at 17:26:23
> Hi Angelrose,
> Ya know, Meridia is something I haven't tried. I was tempted to at one time and did some research on it though.
>
> Basically what I came up with is that is a serotonin and norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor, in addition to whatever it does to block appetite. I saw comments from a couple people who were pleasantly surprised to see their longstanding depression lift while taking Meridia to lose weight. Now THAT's a cool unexpected side effect!
>
> Anytime two medications that affect serotonin are combined warrants cautious dosing to prevent serotonin syndrome. To do that, starting with very low doses and increasing slowly is prudent. You may find after a while that it's not a problem at all, but it's better I think to be safe than sorry. If serotonin syndrome did happen, due the low dosing you would be able to catch it early and only experience a mild version of it, which would basically be something like malaise, diarrhea, chills, fever, flu-like stuff.
>
> I had serotonin syndrome when I added St Johnswort to Paxil once. It was flu-like, bad diarrhea, extreme sedation. After stopping both meds, it went away in about 12 hours. I caught it early. Since then I safely added SJW to other serotonin meds, but was obviously more careful. I had been burned and learned.
>
> What you want to do is probably pretty safe. But just to be sure, very low doses would be wise to start with. Whatever the Meridia dose is for example, cut it in half or even quarters to start with. Increase it gently and all should go well.
> (disclaimer, just for grins...I'm not a professional and cannot prescribe, but statements herein are honest and true to the best of my knowledge. :-))
poster:angelrose
thread:47378
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001022/msgs/47672.html