Posted by blueberry1 on December 28, 2006, at 15:57:45
In reply to Prozac to Cymbalta. How to Switch?, posted by Pluto on December 28, 2006, at 7:18:46
I'm bothered that the doctor didn't give you careful instructions. Prozac has a halflife of about a week. There will still be significant levels of prozac in your system after a week, and even after 2 weeks, and it takes 4 to 5 weeks for it to be nearly gone.
On one hand, people combine all sorts of strange meds to custom tailor how they feel. It is possible you might like how prozac and cymbalta feel together. On the other hand, combining two different meds that both enhance serotonin can lead to serotonin syndrome which is dangerous. So the switch is tricky because you don't know what is going to happen, either good, bad, or neutral.
To be safe, it might not be a bad idea to keep the cymbalta dose at a minimum for the first two weeks.
There will be withdrawal effects from prozac and start-up side effects from cymbalta all mixed together, so it is hard to tell what is what. Prozac's long halflife does make the withdrawal smoother than other meds.
You might want to call the doctor and ask him how long the prozac halflife is and also if he has successfully switched other patients straight over to 60mg cymbalta without problems.
poster:blueberry1
thread:716880
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061224/msgs/717000.html