Recovery13: Paxil probiotic induced withdrawal or poop-out!

[Recovery13]

Hello,

 

I was on Paxil for 17 years for depression, ending up at 100mg.

I started taking probiotics from GNC in April and then about 2-3 months later started experiencing withdrawal symptoms. They came gradually at first, just a return of depression and anxiety and then it turned into full blown horrific physical and emotional WD stuff. I'm trying to figure out if the probiotics caused it or it was SSRI poop-out. the internet says that SSRI poop-out doesn't involve withdrawal symptoms, and some info suggests probiotics can effect oral medications (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24002548)

 

My doctor increased the paxil to 125MG around July, and nothing changed. My doctor then added 10mg of prozac 2 days ago and now wants me to decrease paxil to 100mg (He thinks it is poop out and switching to prozac should help). 

 

Has anyone experienced withdrawal symptoms from "poop-out"? if so, did switching cross tapering to another SSRI help?

 

I'm nervous and confused about dropping 25mg of paxil at once, even if I'm on a high dose.

 

help!

Edited October 28, 2016 by scallywag
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[ladybug]

I have experienced WD symptoms from poop out and I have also experienced increased anxiety symptoms from high potency probiotics. The good news is that my poop out symptoms improved as I slowly decreased my dose. I'm concerned that your doctor has you on such an outrageous dose. Pretty much over twice the recommended maximum dose. If it were me I would rather start a slow taper from my original drug than attempt a switch, but that is just my opinion. I'll let a mod instruct you further.  I assume you have discontinued the probiotic?

[scallywag]

Recovery13 -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

First thing -- the maximum recommended dose of Paxil for any reason is 75 mg. Your doctor should NOT have suggested or prescribed a dose of 100 mg let alone 125 mg!

 

Is the doctor prescribing Paxil a psychiatrist or a family/general practitioner?

Have you tried stopping the probiotic? If so, what happened?

A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-18 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to that can just be listed with start and stop years.
• You don't need to include symptoms or diagnoses other than the initial condition that led to prescribing the first drug.
• We ask for this information in your signature so that we can see it at a glance. A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature

When a someone is taking multiple medications, we ask that that you post an interactions report. Follow the link below to get your report. Just select the text, copy it and paste it in a post here.
Drugs-dot-com Drugs Interactions Checker.

Poop-out or tachyphylaxis is an acknowledged thing. People do experience decreased effectiveness of neuroactive (psychiatric) medications.

You can read about Paxil and Prozac in these topics:
Tips for tapering off Paxil (paroxetine)
Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine)

Your doctor is suggesting a Prozac switch or bridge, a technique used to assist tapering. Here is our topic about that:
Prozac switch or bridge

I'm going to bring your situation to the attention of other moderators and ask them to suggest next steps for you.

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

[Altostrata]

Welcome, Recovery.

 

Have you had a liver function test recently? That is a humungous dose of Paxil, with Prozac on top. This could overload your liver. (The probiotics might have been coincidental, not causal.)

 

If I were you, I would stop the Prozac; a week later, start reducing the Paxil.

 

Since we recommend a 10% decrease, your first reduction would be 12.5mg Paxil. Paxil comes in a liquid for tapering. Any doctor can prescribe it, it doesn't have to be a psychiatrist.

 

If all goes well, I would try another 10% decrease in 2 weeks.

 

Please let us know how you do.