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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Gary Engel on October 17, 2007, at 20:19:29
I've been on Serzone 400mg for years, probably 4 years. My brother recently passed away and my anxiety shot up through the roof. At first they tried to add a few SSRI's, all of which made me sick with mostly terrible flu like symptoms that persisted even on tiny doses, so SSRI's are out. Recently, my pdoc decided to take me off the Serzon, he set up a schedule to drop 50mg / week. Well it was all great until I went from 150mg down to 100mg (a 33% drop). The more you lower your dose, the more the percentages become a factor, as they will go up if your lowering based on Milligrams rather than percentage, which is what happened to me. I went into the hospital for a simple operation on my arm. Two days later, I started having severe Akasthesia. Look it up, if you don't know what it is. I thought I was losing my mind. I felt like I drank 50 cups of Cappachino and couldn't sit still. Felt like I needed to crawl out of my skin. My mind was racing, and I just coldn't sit still. It was like the inside of my body was shaking like crazy. Also felt like my heart rate was 300, but it was only in the 70's. It put me back in the ER and I was given 2mg of IV Ativan which did nothing. Then they gave me 25mg of IV Benedryl and boom, it was gone. But that was short lived and it came back soon after I was sent home. For two more days, I ate Benedryl every 3 hours to help the symptoms that kept coming back. Because I didn't know what the problem was, I got really scared. Then, I took an extra 100mg of Serzone and within an hour, it was all gone, problem solved. So I'm now going back up on it as my pdoc says since I tolerate it, it will be a nice adjunct to the Seroquel he wants to add. But it is very low dose Seroquel 6.25-12.5mg as needed. I'm sure the anhestesia played a small part by blocking cytokines, but that is something I never want to go through again. I couldn't think straight while this was going on and thought I was losing my mind and ready to be committed. It's seems to be mostly resolved now. I hope the Serzone doesn't give me problems on the way up. Now my pdoc says it was impossible that the serzone caused this, but these guys are so egotistical, they would argue that the sky is blue. You can't tell them or suggest anything. Thats been my experience. fortunately I'm now working with a guy who is renoundly known and knows exactly what he is doing. He confirmed that my other pdoc put the nail in the coufin when he lowered me from 150mg to 100mg. He also said, you should never be weaning off an antidepressant when your about to have surgery.
Gary
Posted by Guy on October 17, 2007, at 20:19:30
In reply to Weaning an Antidepressant almost killed me READ!!, posted by Gary Engel on October 17, 2007, at 17:09:35
Gary, I have been following your posts with a lot of empathy as I, too, have suffered for a long time with severe anxiety. I've tried every med in the book and nothing seemed to work. Only when I went on an elimination diet (no sugar, no wheat, no dairy, no alcohol, plus many other no-no's) did things seem to change. My skin problems are clearing up and my ability to tolerate pain and stress has gone way up. When all else fails, change your diet--but, be warned, it takes several weeks to see positive results. You have my e-mail.
Posted by Phillipa on October 17, 2007, at 20:19:30
In reply to Re: Weaning an Antidepressant almost killed me READ!!, posted by Guy on October 17, 2007, at 18:49:12
Gary I guess anything is possible you have my e-mail too. Phillipa
Posted by 49er on October 28, 2007, at 13:58:54
In reply to Weaning an Antidepressant almost killed me READ!!, posted by Gary Engel on October 17, 2007, at 20:19:29
Gary,
Sorry you went through what sounds like a living hell.
It has been my experience in living it and talking to other people withdrawing from psych meds that doctors put patients on a way too fast tapering rate. The advice I read that makes the most sense to me is to to taper 10% of the current dose every 3 to 5 weeks.
Of course, with some meds, that is impossible to do. I was able to get some of my meds filled at a compound pharmacy to get the right dose. But once the pharmacist wanted to charge what I felt was a ridiculous price on another med, I decided to do it myself.
Cutting the pill evenly is impossible for me. So I just decided to crush it up and take out a miniscule amount. If that works, I will keep increasing it until I feel symptoms and wait about 4 to 6 weeks until the next cut.
But in a nutshell, steady and slow is the way to go. And even doing that can still cause problems.
49er
Posted by annae on December 14, 2007, at 13:24:39
In reply to Weaning an Antidepressant almost killed me READ!!, posted by Gary Engel on October 17, 2007, at 20:19:29
I just read your post regarding the effects of withdrawing from an antidepressant. I had no idea that going off of a TCA (Imipramine) could produce such horrible withdrawals. I think it has something to do with the dopamine changes.
I had been taking the medication for 14 years and decided, along with my doctor, that it was no longer working. He suggested that I go off of the medication. He did not suggest tapering, but something told me I should. I did, but NOT slowly enough. After about a week-ten days of discontinuance, I had horrible flu-like symptoms as well as akasthesia for five days. I did not have a clue what was causing it, until I started reading about withdrawals from medications on a site on-line. I still have "re-bound" suffering and it has been three months! Two or three days a week I feel horrible. I wish doctors would work with patients more closely when they are discontinuing meds. It would make the experience somewhat easier.
This is the end of the thread.
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