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Prozac
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Boomhower21 posted:
HI there, I have some questions about Prozac, and was wondering if anyone could help. I have already spent days searching google, but theres a lot of conflicting information, so i came here to hope to find someone who knows what they are talking about, or who has experience with the drug, that I can ask more specific questions to.[br>[br>Here is the story, my girlfriend has problems with anxiety. Which had slowly started to get worse recently , it got to a point where she decided she couldn't handle it herself and went to the doctor, Her doctor suggested she try prozac. She started taking it and she seemed to immediately get worse, just a few days in. Her anxiety was through the roof it seemed, way more then normal, i can only speculate because she refused to see me these first days. It basically got to a point where she was telling me she was having constant suicidal thoughts and she wanted to kill herself. Her family called the hospital, they told her to come in, and after an evaluation they prescribed her to up her dose of prozac and gave her Clonazepam to calm her down if she had an anxiety attack. [br>[br>At some pointin all that, I started learning more about Prozac and learned that it can actually cause worse anxiety in people and suicidal thoughts, so I told her all this but she assured me that it takes a month for prozac to do anything. I didn't believe this at first , as simply searching Google will bring up dozens of people talking about how prozac made them feel completely worse in the first few weeks. I then told her about this, so she went and asked her pharmacist and they also assured her that the side effects wouldn't start for a month or forsure not the first two weeks. [br>[br>Now it's the second week on Prozac, first week with her dosed increased and she has been a little bit better, her anxiety doesn't seem as extreme, and the clonazepam has been helping her feel less anxious she says,. But today I was question her reasoning on something and I think I pushed it to hard and she broke down, and said she was still having suicidal thoughts everyday, multiple times a day. This is not like her at all, she a very strong person, and suicidal thoughts have only plagued her in really extreme situation (ie - she got pregnant and had an abortion). It must be caused by the porozac because that seems to be the only thing that has changed in her life.[br>[br>So, my question is, can prozac cause adverse effects in the first weeks of taking it? And If so is there a chance this will go away ?
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Patricia Farrell, PhD responded:
Whenever any medication causes suicidal thoughts, it must be not only seriously considered, but probably discontinued. There is a history of research that has indicated this problem with this medication that goes back to 1990. Therefore, there are individuals who should not be placed on this medication.


It may be the clonazepam that is providing some relief for her, but the current situation sounds quite extreme and I think she needs to have a 2nd opinion on this because there is real potential for harm here. As you said, this is totally unlike her and the suicidal thoughts continue. Any mental health professional would question the continuance of this medication in light of this very grave situation. I cannot stress this strongly enough.


Please have her seen by another mental health professional who is experienced and who will help in this situation.


Dr. Farrell


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