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Switching Antidepressants?

2 replies

YouG0GlenCoco · 07/07/2024 15:14

Does anyone have experience switching Antidepressants? Specifically Sertraline to Fluoxetine?

I have been on a few different meds on and off over the past 15 years. First was citalopram which I came off without too much negative effects. When pregnant I needed something again so was put onto fluoxetine. Also came off that with no issues. After second child was born I had PND and was put on sertraline, this was 10 years ago. In that time I've had to up the dose on Dr's advice as was struggling again. I'm now on 100mg. At different times I have tried to taper down and the withdrawals are horrendous, even just trying to adjust back to 50mg after three weeks I was in a terrible place mentally and experiencing mild physical withdrawals. I can't afford to just push through however long that takes, I have two disabled children who depend on me.

At one point I had resigned myself to needing to be on this medication for life now. However I have recently heard of people switching to another med to help them come off it. I would ideally like to go back onto fluoxetine as that gave me the least side effects (practically none really) and was easiest to come off. Ideally if I could switch then I'd want to taper off and be taking no Antidepressants.

Has anybody else done this or similar?

OP posts:
BrickOtter · 07/07/2024 15:32

Fluoxetine has a much longer half life than sertraline so tends to cause less problems when withdrawing. So switching to fluoxetine can be a good move if you are wanting to stop. There is also evidence now that much slower tapering may be needed than many GP’s suggest. I have recently tapered off sertraline and did it very slowly. This is from the Royal College of Psychiatristshttps://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/treatments-and-wellbeing/stopping-antidepressants

Stopping antidepressants

Information for anyone who wants to know more about stopping antidepressants.

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/treatments-and-wellbeing/stopping-antidepressants

robotgun · 07/07/2024 18:00

I'm switching right now to Sertraline from Venlafaxine. I am doing a relatively quick cross taper, and am very very up and down. Trying to stick with it but I just want to feel normal again.

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