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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 7 of 7. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by 4mygrls on October 20, 2004, at 17:04:33
someone can help. i'm going to talk with the pdoc on tuesday but i wanted some input from here too since ya'll are so smart in this area of expertise.okay so this is my issue. i take prozac 20mg in the morning and about 3hrs later i take 1mg xanax xr and 300mg wellbutrin xl. i also take 160mg of geodon at night. my first thing is yesterday i had a breakthrough of anger and depression. i still have a low grade depression going on all the time. i also am very anxious. i get bored real easy and have to keep busy. i'm extra anxious in the mornings after i take the prozac. about an hour or two after. my legs are extremely restless then. the xanax xr doesn't seem to be doing much of anything so i'm thinking of asking to up that but i'm also afraid of it knocking me out. i'm having trouble with the geodon cuz i have to take it with food and at bedtime. well, i can't eat right before bed. to top it off, i just started a new job and i work mainly evenings. if i take the geodon with my dinner at work, i still will have atleast 3 or 4 hours to go before going home. it doesn't knock me out but i haven't stayed up that late after taking it so i'm scared to death what's going to happen. i'm also worried cuz i read somewhere that if you take prozac and geodon you have to be carefull cuz the prozac will up the geodon, or something to that effect. i get depressed thinking about all these meds and see no hope in it. i just don't see how i'm going to function normally if i'm changing meds all of the time and taking meds that make me go slower, be exhausted, and forget things. how do people work when they take all these meds. i'm real depressed today and i wish i could see or talk to my pdoc right now but he wont talk to me on the phone. it's always just a social worker and when she calls him he just says to make an appt. well, he's only there on tue and thursdays. so now i have to wait till tuesday to get some answers and try to learn everything with my new job(which includes lots of computer tests) in this state. i'm just so depressed and don't know what to do.thanks for listening and sorry it got so long.
Kathi
Posted by jboud24 on October 20, 2004, at 19:44:32
In reply to i have some ?'s reguarding my meds and i'm hoping, posted by 4mygrls on October 20, 2004, at 17:04:33
If you believe there is an interaction between the prozac and geodon, ask you psychiatrist next time you see him that you're worried. If he's even slightly knowledgable, I'm sure he would not have put you on a combo he thought would be potentially dangerous.
With regard to the xanax, perhaps something longer-acting like Klonopin would be better for you; it would require once or at most twice daily dosing and would cover your anxiety all day long. In my past experience, I wound up having to continually increase my dose of xanax from 1.5mg / day when I started to 5mg /day after two years. Eventually for unrelated reasons I stopped the xanax, and I am now in the process of waiting for an appt. with a new pdoc where I'm going to try to switch to Klonopin.
If the xanax is really working for you though, increasing it is far less likely to sedate you than geodon. If you are concerned about that, maybe ask or try to cut back on the geodon. What conditions have you been diagnosed with?Hope you feel better soon,
Justin
Posted by chailatte on October 21, 2004, at 22:24:38
In reply to Questions » 4mygrls, posted by jboud24 on October 20, 2004, at 19:44:32
> If you believe there is an interaction between the prozac and geodon, ask you psychiatrist next time you see him that you're worried. If he's even slightly knowledgable, I'm sure he would not have put you on a combo he thought would be potentially dangerous.
> With regard to the xanax, perhaps something longer-acting like Klonopin would be better for you; it would require once or at most twice daily dosing and would cover your anxiety all day long.In my past experience, I wound up having to continually increase my dose of xanax from 1.5mg / day when I started to 5mg /day after two years. Eventually for unrelated reasons I stopped the xanax, and I am now in the process of waiting for an appt. with a new pdoc where I'm going to try to switch to Klonopin.
> If the xanax is really working for you though, increasing it is far less likely to sedate you than geodon. If you are concerned about that, maybe ask or try to cut back on the geodon. What conditions have you been diagnosed with?
>
> Hope you feel better soon,
> JustinI agree about asking the doctor about the prozac and geodon interaction. Justin, I think you are comparing regular Xanax to Klonopin. Xanax XR once a day is what is being taken. So switching to Klonopin wouldn't allow fewer doses a day. Klonopin is a good suggestion if it has not been tried previously.
Posted by jboud24 on October 22, 2004, at 6:01:59
In reply to Re: Questions, posted by chailatte on October 21, 2004, at 22:24:38
I'm afraid I've taken xanax xr. I noticed barely any diierence between it and my regular 1mg pills. No I take that back, I liked the immediate release better. Even with the XR's, I was having rebound anxiety. I found that 1mg Klonopin = 2.5-3mg xanax = 15mg Valium. But, I know everyone's body is different.
Posted by ed_uk on October 22, 2004, at 8:58:10
In reply to i have some ?'s reguarding my meds and i'm hoping, posted by 4mygrls on October 20, 2004, at 17:04:33
Many people find that to get the best effect from Xanax XR they have to take it twice daily rather than once daily like the manufacturer suggests. You could ask your pdoc to prescribe the 0.5 mg Xanax XR pills instead of the 1mg ones and you could take 0.5mg in the morning and 0.5mg in the evening (ie. every 12 hours). You'd still be taking a total of 1mg/24h and you might find that there's no need to increase your dose at all. This should help to keep a steady level of xanax in your blood and reduce your anxiety. It should also help to reduce the restlessness that you experience after taking Prozac because you will still have enough xanax in your bloodstream in the morning from the dose you took the night before.
It is important that you get the 0.5 mg tablets prescribed because you shouldn't cut the Xanax XR tablets in half. This is because they are controlled release tablets.
Don't worry too much about the Geodon because it's important to bear in mind that you only need to eat a very small amount of food with it.
Hope this helps...
Ed
Posted by chailatte on October 22, 2004, at 14:29:00
In reply to Re: Questions » chailatte, posted by jboud24 on October 22, 2004, at 6:01:59
> I'm afraid I've taken xanax xr. I noticed barely any diierence between it and my regular 1mg pills. No I take that back, I liked the immediate release better. Even with the XR's, I was having rebound anxiety. I found that 1mg Klonopin = 2.5-3mg xanax = 15mg Valium. But, I know everyone's body is different.
It doesn't really matter wheter you have taken the XR in the past. You didn't specify the type of Xanax and I assumed it was XR since that was what she was talking about. It became clear that you were talking about regular Xanax, because you told her that she could try Klonopin and that this way she would not have to take it more than twice a day. The XR is used once a day and in some cases twice. It would make sense if she was taking regular Xanax 4 times a day and switching to Klonopin would reduce that to 1-2 times a day. That would be a smart move. I think you are giving a good suggestion about Klonopin, but stressing that it is only once or twice a day isn't distinguishing it from the XR that she takes once a day. I think she may want to try it if the XR is not working out. There are several other reasons why Klonopin would be a good choice.
Posted by jboud24 on October 22, 2004, at 14:44:33
In reply to Re: Questions, posted by chailatte on October 22, 2004, at 14:29:00
Let me clarify what my dosage regimen was. I was prescribed both xanax xr and xanax regular at the same time. I took one xr 2mg in the morning every day, and then I would take 3 1mg xanax throughout the rest of the day for a total of 5mg. I wasn't particularly impressed by xanax xr, and found that it only lasted 2 or 3 hours past what the immediate release would do. I'm sorry for not making myself clear. I really liked xanax though. It's just I liked Klonopin better. For me, I could take 1 dose of klonopin and it would last throughout the entire day and into the night. I found 2mg Klonopin equivalent to probably 4mg of xanax. YMMV though. In addition, I should note that I was still having to dose the xanax 3-4 times/day, and it was subjectively nearly completely worn off by nightime, even though objectively I'm sure it was still in my system. I just didn't notice it. Overall, I have much more experience with xanax than with klonopin. I would definitely recommend at least trying the Klonopin in place of the xanax for a month or two, just so that one could get a feel for which is better. I don't take any benzos right now, haven't for the last 3 months, so I am kind of going on memory here.
Also, as I stated in another post about generic xanax, I used to get purepac. I found purepac substantially weaker than the other brands out there, generic or otherwise.
Good Luck with your xanax. I know how debilitating anxiety can be, and I empathize with you completely. Just so you will know, I suffer from social anxiety disorder(severe) and generalized anxiety disorder(not so severe).
Justin
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