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Switching from Effexor to Prozac

Posted by asha on December 18, 2003, at 21:26:26

I've been taking Effexor XR 150mg for about 2 1/2 years with success. I've had some some effects like weight gain and night sweats, but compared to the crippling depression I lived with before taking Effexor, the side-effects were only a mild irritation. Recently, however, the Effexor has stopped working for me. I'm not as deeply depressed as I have been in the past, but I'm trying to take action before it gets that bad again. I'm having a very hard time wanting to leave the house for any reason and I've been struggling with a heavy hopeless feeling in regard to life in general - just totally overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to finish college, of looking to my future and seeing nothing but years upon years of working meaningless jobs day in and day out. So really I need to do something about this while I'm still able to get out of bed and function.

I saw my doctor about this a few days ago. I expected her to increase my dosage, but she recommended that I stop the Effexor completely and switch to Prozac. So I'm now doing that. Today is my second day on Prozac 20mg.

I've started to notice some dizziness/vertigo that I know from experience is from coming off of the Effexor (I always get similar symptoms if I miss a dose or two).

I'm concerned about the way that my physician is having me make this switch. She's not tapering me off of the Effexor. One day Effexor XR 150mg, the next day Prozac 20mg. She said it shouldn't be a problem since they both effect serotonin in the same way. I haven't been able to find much online about switching specifically from Effexor to Prozac. The one post I found was from a person whose doctor was gradually decreasing the Effexor dose while gradually increasing the Prozac - which makes way more sense to me.

I'm concerned that the withdrawel symptoms will get worse. I can deal with some mild dizziness, but I know from experience that the symptoms can get much much worse to the point that I barely feel like I can function. I'm worried that perhaps my doctor should have taken a more gradual approach with switching the meds.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Also, is the dosage for each relatively the same? I'm under the impression that 150 mg Effexor is sort of middle-of-the-road as far as dosage goes, but I don't know much about Prozac dosage.

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Asha


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poster:asha thread:291444
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031213/msgs/291444.html