Posted by Franz on March 9, 2012, at 20:39:55
In reply to Re: Trying escitalopram at 5 mg caused anxiety?, posted by bleauberry on March 9, 2012, at 14:02:01
> Increased anxiety is a common side effect of start-up ssris such as lexapro. It usually fades into calmness but takes weeks and months to do that. I don't completely buy into the theory of neurotransmitter deficiency...partially but not completely...but let's assume for the sake of discussion that it is true and provable fact. It isn't, but just to make a point.... Ok someone has low serotonin and they have depression. Lexapro is immediately going to put a lot of serotonin at the synapse, where there has been a deficiency of it for quite a while. Well, obviously the receptors are going to freak out. The will adjust and adapt, but the sudden surge of serotonin creates some temporary chaos in the circuits.
>
> If it is a big enough problem that you don't think you can endure it to give the med a fair test, then simply lower the dose. It is too high for you right now. Pills can be broken or cut or crushed into whatever size you want. They can be crushed and powdered and stirred into juice or water for accurate dosing of small custom doses. (example...1/4 glass of 5mg lex stirred into it is a dose of 1.25mg.
>
> But only 10mg or higher will work, right? Wrong. My doctor told me stories of some of his patients who did very well on 1mg or less, and those same patients did poorly on regular doses.
>
> In the event that you discovered you are one of those that does better with tiny doses, lexapro makes it easy because it can be prescribed in liquid form.
>
> Anyway, at this point you have 3 choices.
> 1. Endure it.
> 2. Lower the dose to where you can endure it, try to increase it later.
> 3. Take something to help the immediate symptoms. In meds that might mean xanax. In herbs it might mean lemon balm, passionflower, skullcap, valerian.Thanks bleauberry, your comment is encouraging. I don´t think my Dr will accept less than 5 mg, he will say it is placebo and that 5 mg is already too low, but maybe one has to lie and take what works even if it is less than the usual dose.
Yes, I take .25 mg alprazolam at night which I think it is the best drug I have taken.
I will endure the 5 mg as much as I can and if I still get side effects (the worse is tinnitus that now is mild but want it to be lower because it scares me)I will cut to 2.5. Maybe it helps with mood and stress at least.
poster:Franz
thread:1012496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120302/msgs/1012686.html