To differentiate between withdrawal symptoms and relapse, a person should consider the following two things. Antidepressants may take days or weeks to leave a person’s system. People may experience withdrawal symptom days or weeks after reducing the dose. The best way to avoid Prozac withdrawal is to consult with a doctor and receive a tapering schedule.

It is important to keep an eye out for potential withdrawal symptoms and report them to your healthcare provider promptly. As dire as some of these symptoms may sound, you shouldn’t let them discourage you if you want to go off your antidepressant. The antidepressants most likely to cause troublesome symptoms are those that have a short half-life — that is, they break down and leave the body quickly.

Which Drugs Are Most Likely to Cause Antidepressant Withdrawal?

As with other drugs effective in the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder, the full effect may be delayed until 4 weeks of treatment or longer. Fluoxetine is typically prescribed as a short-term or long-term treatment, depending on the condition being treated. You’ll take fluoxetine for as long as you and your doctor determine that it’s safe and effective for your condition. For more information about fluoxetine’s dosage for children, talk with your child’s doctor or a pharmacist.

Allergic Reactions And Rash

Some research indicates that withdrawal, or discontinuation, symptoms are common, affecting more than half of those who stop taking antidepressants. Keep using the medication as directed and tell your doctor if your symptoms do not improve. However, other studies show that people with depression who stop taking their antidepressant during pregnancy are more likely to have their depression symptoms worsen. This is in comparison with people who kept taking their antidepressant. Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.

• This should make it possible for you to create smaller doses of your antidepressant, allowing you to follow a slower tapering plan.
• The Pulvules also contain starch, gelatin, silicone, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, and other inactive ingredients.
• Only online pharmacies using licensed US doctors, with a strong web presence is selected for comparison in our guide.
• SSRIs are used to treat mental health conditions, such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• If you struggle to taper this quickly, and get withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop taking them, you will need to taper your antidepressants more slowly.

For more information about this warning, see the “What are fluoxetine’s side effects? Here’s a list of common questions related to taking fluoxetine. Symptoms of a severe allergic reaction can include swelling under your skin, typically in your eyelids, lips, hands, or feet.

Fluoxetine dosages by condition

They can help you to decide whether stopping antidepressants is right for you and how to do it safely. We publish information to help people understand more about mental health and mental illness, and the kind of care they are entitled to. Antidepressants with a short half-life leave your system quickly, which can lead to more intense and immediate withdrawal symptoms.

2. Other Reactions

Clinical studies of olanzapine and fluoxetine in combination did not include sufficient numbers of patients ≥65 years of age to determine whether they respond differently from younger patients. There have been reports of both increased and decreased lithium levels when lithium was used concomitantly with fluoxetine. Cases of lithium toxicity and increased serotonergic effects have been reported. Lithium levels should be monitored when these drugs are administered concomitantly see WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS. The half-life of concurrently administered diazepam may be prolonged in some patients see CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY.

Allow two to four weeks to adjust to the new dose, to see how things go. When you agree that it is time to stop, your prescriber can help you put together a tapering plan. Between a third and half of people who take an antidepressant will experience such symptoms to some extent. At the moment we cannot predict who will get the more serious withdrawal symptoms. This resource aims to help you avoid getting any withdrawal symptoms, or get the fewest possible.

• Withdrawal timeline can be affected by dosage, duration of use, how the drug was discontinued, and individual factors.
• Individuals should only stop taking antidepressants when they have discussed it with a doctor.
• When symptoms do start, they often get strongest within the first few weeks.
• Speak to your prescriber or pharmacist if you are moving from tablet to liquid, to make sure that you are converting your dose correctly.
• If you’re thinking about stopping antidepressants, it’s important to work closely with your doctor to manage the withdrawal effectively.
• The study follows recent concerns about the effects of stopping antidepressants, as well as various guidance changes on their prescribing.

If you or someone you know has any of the following symptoms in response to reducing or discontinuing antidepressants, seek medical help immediately. Tapering off your antidepressant can help minimize some of the side effects of withdrawal. Two of the most common include reducing your dosage by 25% each week or taking a slightly longer approach and tapering the fluoxetine withdrawal: symptoms and what to expect medication over the course of six to eight weeks.

Your best strategy for going off your medicine is to taper your doses down slowly. Your doctor can help you figure out the best tapering schedule for you. Discontinuation symptoms appear within a few days or weeks of stopping antidepressants, whereas returning depressive symptoms develop after some weeks and tend to come on gradually.

There was considerable variation in risk of suicidality among drugs, but a tendency toward an increase in the younger patients for almost all drugs studied. There were differences in absolute risk of suicidality across the different indications, with the highest incidence in MDD. The risk differences (drug versus placebo), however, were relatively stable within age strata and across indications.