Posted by med_empowered on March 19, 2006, at 0:11:28
In reply to Lexapro dosage question..., posted by Colleen D. on March 18, 2006, at 23:42:32
antidepressants are strange when it comes to dosing. Usually, manufacturers have set dosage ranges (ex: 20-80mgs/day for Prozac) or even ideal dosages (ex: 60mgs/day for Cymbalta). The beauty of prescription drugs is that docs can rx them for anything, at pretty much any dose. It could be that the extra 10mgs is necessary for you, b/c you rapidly metabolize Lexapro...thats why some people need high doses of stuff (for example, blood levels of antipsychotics can vary wildly from person to person, even at the same dose per day). It could also be that the extra 10mgs did something in your brain above and beyond the usual 10mgs, so you're experiencing something from the "extra" lexapro. Either way, its not necessarily harmful--its just not well-studied. Ex: some docs RX cymbalta at 90, even 120mgs, although 60mgs is currently considered "the dose". And zyprexa is sometimes given at 30+mgs, even though the current max dose (per eli lilly's recommendations) is 20mgs.
As for your GP...GPs tend to prescribe antidepressants too often, but RX them at too low doses--so a shrink might rx 150mgs of, say, Tofranil, but your GP might only go up to 100.
poster:med_empowered
thread:621882
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/621894.html