Paxil

[rjridley]

In 2001, I went to a psychiatrist for the first time in my life. After hearing my story he prescribed Paxil for me. He started me out on 10mg per day. After a few weeks, I didn't notice any change, so he upped the dosage to 20mg. This continued until I was taking 60mg of Paxil a day. I took what was in the bottle, and then got one more refill, and then when that one ran out, I quit taking it and quit going to him.

How is it possible to have taken a medication for about half a year without noticing either the intended or the side effects of the medication? Other people who have taken it have noticed a change in weeks. I was on it for months, and nothing.

[Luna-]

Hi rjridley

I'm sorry to hear Paxil did nothing for you. I can relate, as my bipolar depressions are very medication-resistant and I have been through countless trials of medications before finding ones that were effective and even then they haven't remained so.

The answer is that medications work for some people and not for others. This is what is very difficult specifically about psychiatric prescribing. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing in advance what will work for whom and it is literally a trial and error process.

What is considered a 'fair trial' of a medication is four to eight weeks of a medication at the suggested effective dose. It sounds as if, in your case you were on the medication after it had been shown not to be effective. Yours was longer than a fair trial.

You may do very well on another anti-depressant. Unfortunately there's no way of knowing which one. You may have to persevere.

Good luck.