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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 8 of 8. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
--Majandra
Posted by roo on April 6, 2001, at 11:35:33
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
This is a totally uneducated guess, but I do great
on prozac--and it usually takes me no time at all
to notice a big difference in my mood. It seems to
me like you've waited a reasonable amount of time to
see some improvement. Since prozac is an SSRI, and so
is zoloft, I would guess that you just might have a similar
response to it. Personally I would try a non-SSRI, and
see if you get a better response. I would try Wellbutrin, since
it is more activating and it dosen't have the sexual side effects
or weight gain associated with the SSRI's (prozac, zoloft,
celexa, luvox). I think that usually if a drug is the right
drug for you, it dosen't take a really long time to respond to it.
Just my humble opinion.
Posted by Anna Laura on April 6, 2001, at 11:50:19
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
> I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
> --Majandra
I've been taking Zoloft for about a year and i didn't notice any substantial shift in my mood. As a matter of fact, i felt pretty numb.
On the other hand, It gave me a fairly good help for my panic attacks. I'm actually switching from Tofranil (imipramine) to Prozac. My main problem is anhedonia and Tofranil didn't work pretty much for that. I was told that Prozac is a fairly good stimulant, so I swithced to it hoping to give a kick to my long-standing anhedonia.
I started taking Prozac the last week : i guess it's too early to tell wether is working for me or not. I added 20 mg. two days ago cause one tablet is a pretty small dosage for me: i guess i need much higher doses.
Right now i'm taking 40 mg. of Prozac plus two tablets of Tofranil (25 mg. each).
Doesn't seem to work that much, but again, perhaps it's too early to tell. Inappetence, dizziness and sleepiness are the current side-effects of Prozac. If it'll start working i'll let you know.Take care
AL
Posted by Joy on April 6, 2001, at 13:49:37
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
I find Prozac to work much better than Zoloft for me. I'm on 40 mg s of Prozac. When I was on Zoloft I went from 25 mg to 125 mg in 6 or 7 weeks; it did very little. I started Prozac week 6 taking Zoloft and weaned that down and started 10 mg Prozac for a few days, and then wento to 20 mgs. I felt better, but not totally until I tried 40 mgs of Prozac daily. This is my maintenance dose and it works well for me. In my own experience researching and reading the Message Boards, etc. it seems like Prozac works for more people, but you never know. I have a little insomnia from Prozac but no side effects; headaches [on Zoloft and Prozac] went away. My friend is 11 years on Prozac and Trazodone at night for sleeping, and she is fine [with no weight gain], so just go with your instincts. You can always switch. Good luck.
Joy
> I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
> --Majandra
Posted by Ted on April 6, 2001, at 14:13:09
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
Hi Majandra,
I take zoloft. I have done *lots* of reading about all of the SSRIs, and this is what I believe to be true:
Prozac is a "dirty" ssri. It has lots of metabolic products and side effects which are undesireable. However, many of the metabolic products also have antidepressent qualities, so it is probably the most effect ssri.
Zoloft is one of the less powerful of the SSRIs and it has among the fewest side effects (celexa is probably better).
I take 150mg zoloft and my wife takes 200mg. I would suggest you slowly increase your zoloft dose until you reach the 200 mg level. If after 5 weeks at 200 mg it doesn't work, then switch. At your current dose, you're not even halfway there.
Ted
> I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
> --Majandra
Posted by mikes on April 6, 2001, at 14:33:13
In reply to Re: Zoloft vs. Prozac » Majandra, posted by Ted on April 6, 2001, at 14:13:09
Anyone know the response time range for zoloft? I felt something on paxil in a week(at 10mg), it was a very bad response, however. I started zoloft a few days ago at 25mg, going up to 50 after a week. Any idea how long it takes to get started?
Posted by JohnL on April 6, 2001, at 18:19:56
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
> I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
> --MajandraJust my personal opinion, but I like the idea of switching from Zoloft to Prozac. Not only my doctor, but perhaps yours too, has had best results with Prozac. Maybe? I've been on both and prefer Prozac. Prozac is smoother and yet more uplifting, to me anyway. If you switch it should be no problem. Though many doctors would say you need a week or two to wash out completely, one day is enough. If doses were kept very small at first you could even overlap the two while transitioning from one to the other. As far as I know it is no big deal to go from Zoloft to Prozac. They are quite different too, so since Zoloft hasn't helped then the odds are good that Prozac will.
John
Posted by Wendy B on April 7, 2001, at 13:22:52
In reply to Zoloft vs. Prozac, posted by Majandra on April 6, 2001, at 11:08:07
Majandra,
I was on Zoloft for four years. My gynecologist started me on it for PMS. Since it's well-tolerated, titration rate should be 50 mg to start, and up in intervals of 50 mg. I responded in about 5 days to 50 mg, which startled me. But it really stopped the constant feeling that there was going to be some fresh disaster up around the next corner every day of my life. I had never felt so free from dread. So I was able to cope with depression and anxiety very well on Zoloft for several years as monotherapy. I eventually settled in at 100 mg. About a year ago, I was starting to feel that it wasn't really doing it for me anymore, so I went up to 150 and to 200 in rapid succession, but no luck.
If you aren't sure about your Dr switching you so quickly after she'd just spoken to you for the first time, I'd suggest taking a conservative approach, you may feel more comfortable with that. Increase the Zoloft levels first, to see if it really does something for you, or if it's not successful, then switch to Prozac, if that seems prudent. If you're at 75 right now, go up another 50, it should kick in if it's going to by then. But 200 mg per day is the standard dosage, so you can feel fine about going even higher than 125.
Take care of yourself, and don't let a new doctor assume she knows all that much about your life or your meds. Someone obviously prescribed the Zoloft for you, with your symptoms and history in mind. I liked it >very< much, and was quite disappointed when it stopped working so well. But 4 years is a long time, I was highly functional, so I count my blessings...
Let us know what you course of treatment you do take -- Wendy
> I have been taking zoloft for 5 weeks and have noticed no lift in my mood. It is just making me exhausted. I'll spare you the whole story, but I had my first appointment w/ a new doctor and she immediately suggested switching me to prozac. I was a little worried about her doing that so swiftly, since she had only spoken to me for a few minutes and I felt that she didn't have a very good sense of my situation. Plus, another doctor I had seen in passing said something to the effect of "Boy, I'm glad you're not on Prozac." However, I do want to feel better. Right now I'm holding off on the decision for another week and am staying on zoloft at my current 75mg a day. Does anyone have any advice about possibly making the switch, any good/bad experiences w/ Prozac? Thanks.
> --Majandra
This is the end of the thread.
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