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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 waterfall on November 18, 2006, at 17:21:52
Has anyone else had difficulty coming off of Geodon? I'm trying to reduce from 80 to 60 milligrams and I'm moody, irritable, angry. I'm almost at the two week mark and it seems to be getting worse. I'll grant that maybe I'm just not ready to be reducing dosage but thought I'd check also if there are any reported withdrawl effects. Thanks!
Posted by Phillipa on November 18, 2006, at 17:21:52
In reply to Having trouble going off Geodon, posted by waterfall on November 18, 2006, at 10:01:39
Check and post on the withdrawal board. More answers there. Love Phillipa
Posted by med_empowered on November 18, 2006, at 18:07:26
In reply to Re: Having trouble going off Geodon » waterfall, posted by Phillipa on November 18, 2006, at 11:22:38
officially, most shrinks say there isn't any sort of withdrawal syndrome from neuroleptics--if you're having problems, the reasoning goes, its a return of previously medicated symptoms, and you should probably re-start some sort of psychotropic treatment. However, some shrinks do recognize a distinct withdrawal syndrome--data going back to the 60s with Thorazine suggests one.
Tapering off neuroleptics is hard. I did my abilify cold turkey, and that was a very bad call. Could you get an RX for a benzo? A short-term benzo would help calm things down a bit while the taper is ongoing. Another approach might be a more gradual taper of the medication---instead of 80 to 60, maybe 80 to 70 (try opening the capsules to make that work). Another option would be trying to do some dose @ 80, others @ 60, and then working down to more days @ 60, and possibly down further until you're at 0 or wherever you'd like to end up.
Peter Breggin writes books about ill effects of psychiatric drugs. Some of his claims seem excessive, but he is one of the few psychiatrists I know of who gives practical advice to patients who want to taper off various meds (benzos, neuroleptics, antidepressants, etc.) You may want to swing by a library, book store, or amazon.com and check out some of his stuff.
Also, try googling him--I think he has a website that might have some general advice on tapers/dose reduction.
Good luck!
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