I’ve been taking Paxil since November 2002. I was taking 25mg a day, which my doctor reduced to 12.5mg in Feb 2003 as I was feeling better.
I’m now at my last refill and I’ve about couple of weeks supply left. There have been times when I didn’t take it (forgot or left the medicine at home etc) for a day or two and naturally felt the withdrawl symptoms (very uncomfortable condition). I want to stop taking it after I’m done with my last supply. My question are:
Is it ok to stop taking it abruptly? Are there any serious side-effects to it? The Paxil website doesn’t really give much information on that, and my doctor doesn’t seem to pay much attention to this condition (I’ve been mostly talking to him over the phone recently). I can go see another doctor but I want to hear from people who have possibly used it themselves and have quitted using it as a natural course of their treatment.
Any insight or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks a lot Squink. The threads helped a lot. I’m now concern about tappering it down. Perhaps asking my doctor to prescribe a lower dosage or breaking down the supply I’ve into half pills. Dunno.
How some of the other dopers tappered it down? What worked for whom?
From my own experience of coming off Paxil.
I got significant side effects, enough to distract me whilst driving and make working difficult. If I was you I would do the following.
Separate out 7 x 12.5 mg tablets. Cut each tablet in half as carefully as you can, put 7 of these 6 ish mg tablets in a suitable container. Then cut the remaining 7 half tablets in half again. Put the 14 3 ish mg tablets in another suitable container.
When your last 12.5 mg tablet is used up, switch to taking the broken tablets you made earlier.
For the first three days take 1 6mg (half tablet) and 1 3mg (quater tablet) each day. Then for the next four days take just 1 6mg (half tablet) each day. For the next week after take just one 3mg (quater tablet) each day. This will allow you to drop the dosage from 12.5mg to 0mg over a two week period.
NOTE (DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU HAVE TIME RELEASE TABLETS)
It is quite possible that you could come off the Paxil abruptly with no side effects, but the side effects are nasty, so tapering off gently is I believe prefferable.
Bippy, thank a lot. I’m gonna try that. Somehow I get the feeling that my doctor may not agree with it but then again, it’s me who is taking the pills not my doctor and he’s no clue what I might go througgggggghhhhhhhhh.
Check with your doctor. My dad’s a shrink and one of his biggest peeves is when a patient thinks they are better and goes off their meds without consulting him first. Sometimes they really are all better, but usually they re-develop their previous symptoms and spiral back to their original condition. Then they come back to my dad and he has to re-prescribe the very same drugs. Of course, this includes folks taking anti-psychotics as well as SSRIs. The doc probably has good tips on weaning yourself from the drugs, as well.
I took Paxil for a year and a half to treat symptoms of anxiety. Whatever you do, DO NOT STOP TAKING THE DRUG ABRUPTLY, or you will feel like crawling into a hole somewhere and never coming out. :eek:
Taper slowly off the drug. I was taking 15 mg per day during my treatment. When I decided to taper off, I took 10 mg daily for three weeks, then 5 mg daily for two weeks, then 2 mg daily for two weeks, then finally…freedom. (Note: These were not extended release tablets.) This may seem like a really slow schedule, but I had absolutely no side effects doing it this way, and it’s better to be safe.
Word of caution: I tried the “every other day” plan for about a week, and I felt slight withdrawal symptoms. I think this has to do with how fast the drug is eliminated from the body (Paxil has a very short half-life – only 21 hours, IIRC). I could be wrong about this, though.
For more info, visit PubMed and do a search for “SSRI discontinuation syndrome” or “paroxetine withdrawal.”
A good dose of percocet would effectively help all the conditions paxil is supposed to treat (but, of course, doesn’t)… and is no less addictive. Kinda ironic.
If you want to see a Paxil meltdown, see my posts at Siege’s help board. I have been so deep in the depths of despair that I was ready to destroy everything around me. I just started the Wellbutrin, and I plan to see a counselor at the earliest appointment opportunity. Just this little bit is enough to improve my outlook on life.
And since this is GQ, I’ll just pass along my doctor’s advice- don’t just stop taking Paxil. Get your doctor to set you up with something else to wean you off the drug- if you have side-effects as bad as mine and some of the others who have posted, you will not be having a good time.
Here’s another vote for NOT abruptly stopping the Paxil.
Taper it down, the half pills, then the every other day is a good idea.
Now, that said, 12.5mg is a very small dose to begin with. You want to be careful as you can, but don’t expect the worst. If you take a little care, weaning yourself off a dose that small should not be particularly unpleasant.
DON’T try to wean yourself off Paxil without the advice of your doctor. Some pills are coated, and cutting or breaking them in half affects their absorbtion properties, for one thing.