Possible pairing of prozac and paxil?

August 24, 2012 12:59 PM

(YANMD filter) Would (according to your personal/second-hand experience) taking paxil (10 mg a day for 2 days, leftover from a previous prescription) over the weekend until I can get back to the doctor to refill my routine long-ish term 20 mg a day prozac prescription:

a. help me avoid any incipient prozac withdrawal/wobble symptons till Monday,
b. be a really stupid idea either definitely or possibly so why risk it,
or c. most probably not make a difference either way?
(I am tending towards b).
(There are no docs open where I am at the weekend apart from emergencies and I am in no way in an emergency situation, I just really don't want to interrupt my treatment AGAIN cos I have again procrastinated going to the docs.)

posted by runincircles to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Possibly a.

It's HIGHLY unlikely that the paxil has transmogrified into something dangerous, and it was previously prescribed for you, so, worse case is likely to be: your anxiety/depression/whatever is helped, but some withdrawal symptoms from prozac occur anyway.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:04 PM on August 24, 2012

From Dr. Ivan Goldberg: "There is no risk of such withdrawal symptoms when going between SSRIs or between an SSRI and venlafaxine. You can go from fluoxetine to just about anything, but an MAOI, and not worry because of that drugs long half-life."
posted by IAmBroom at 1:06 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you go to the pharmacy where you filled the prescription and explain the situation, they will likely give you a few pills to tide you over until Monday.
posted by something something at 1:07 PM on August 24, 2012 [5 favorites]

Also, as this isn't a controlled substance, your doctor can call/fax the pharmacy and authorize them to dispense a small amount.
posted by griphus at 1:08 PM on August 24, 2012

Call the pharmacy. They will either contact your doctor for you or get you a few pills to last until Monday. Or both.

(What something something and griphus said on preview)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:15 PM on August 24, 2012

B. Paxil is not Prozac, and I can't imagine it helping with the withdrawal from the Prozac enough to mitigate the probable side-effects of, as far as your body is concerned, starting on a new kind of medicine. The bit about getting a few pills from the pharmacist to cover you for the weekend is true. I've had to do it a couple of times, and if you get your meds from the same place regularly they will know from their records what is up. Bring your last prescription bottle along to show the dosage, and you probably won't have to worry about the Paxil anyway.
posted by Because at 1:30 PM on August 24, 2012

Response by poster: I should have mentioned I'm in Germany not the US, but i will try going to the pharmacist tomorrow.
Thanks AskMe!
posted by runincircles at 1:53 PM on August 24, 2012

A quick google search seems to indicate that Prozac is a) less likely to most SSRIs to cause withdrawal issues and b) unlikely to cause any problems within just 2 days.
posted by she's not there at 1:56 PM on August 24, 2012

Really, I wouldn't worry about it. Skipping the Prozac for just two days is not going to hurt. And taking Paxil for two days is not going to help, it needs time to build up.
posted by ubiquity at 2:06 PM on August 24, 2012

IAmBroom is right. Prozac has a very long half life. That means you won't start feeling the effects of it until you've been taking it for quite some time, and it also means that you won't have it out of your system until you've stopped taking it for quite some time. Don't bother with the Paxil, answer is C.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 2:15 PM on August 24, 2012

I think this depends on what your experience has been in the past when missing a dose of Prozac. Given Prozac's short half-life I would not expect either option to be especially bad, but some folks might be more sensitive to withdrawal. (I've never had problems when weaning off SSRIS, but I had a friend who does.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:28 PM on August 24, 2012

Er. LONG half-life. LONG. Prozac is the SSRI that takes the longest to dissipate from your body.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:28 PM on August 24, 2012