Should Fluoxetine cause paranoia?

[Goldshimmer]

Looking for some advice. My daughter has just been diagnosed with severe depression and prescribed Fluoxetine. She has not coped well with the side effects and by day 12, her stomach pains were increasing, she cannot fall asleep before 6am and she had started to become very paranoid – thinking she could hear people calling her name / thinking I was spiking her drinks. Her dreams were vivid and terrifying and she was beginning to get confused about what was real and what was not when she woke up.
Are these normal symptoms?
We thought not so stopped her medication. Yet, 2 days later her anxiety, anger and paranoia spiked making her very unstable, we are now concerned about her safety.
I cannot get hold of her psychiatrist but we do fly home tomorrow. Any advice on support I can get now or whether to get her back on meds or not?

They aren't normal symptoms but do sound like some of the very rare side effects that can occur in some people.

I'm not a doctor, so the only advice I can give is to speak to a doctor as soon as possible.

It might also be worth saying that sleeplessness in itself can trigger psychosis, so anything you can do to help your daughter rest/sleep can only be helpful.

Speaking to her psychiatrist should be the absolute priority.

Although I am not a doctor (so anything I say is just anecdotal), there may be a possibility that she was moving towards psychosis in any case, and the stress of travel and sleeplessness has aggravated her condition.
My son received treatment for depression before eventually moving into psychosis. The 'prodrome' of psychosis can very similar to depression (and/or can co-exist with it).

Alternatively, she may just be very stressed and tired.

Speak to your GP if you can't contact the psychiatrist. But try not to worry too much. Focus on keeping things as relaxed as possible until you fly home.

Thank you. Still trying to get a response from her psychiatrist, but I think she will not be responding at all until Monday. I'm in the Maldives so don't know what other MH support I can get here?
We have been giving her melatonin but it has not effect.

I was on fluoxetine for about 4 weeks and couldn't tolerate the vivid dreams I was having.
Not nightmares, but dreaming I'd completed something at work, and in reality being pulled up by my line manager for not doing it. Or dreaming I hadn't done something and then travelling to work with major anxiety to find I'd done it.
The last straw was not turning up for a shift because I dreamt it was my day off.
So totally understand your daughter's confusion of what's real.
I don't remember if I had physical symptoms, it was a few years ago.