Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 362

Shown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

combination of prozac and serzone

Posted by karen gibble on August 23, 1998, at 15:32:33

Can people with more experience than myself...I am a recent graduate having my masters in psychiatric nursing and pursuing prescriptive privileges. I have a client who presents with a long history of major depression...she is 44 yo also Dx with PTSD. Has been on Prozac for 12 years(? approx) and is maxed at 80 mg/day has also been on trazodone for approx 12 years and is up to 150 mg at bedtime. She experiences breakthrough depression symptoms and is having problems with nightmares and has been for years. A family doc is suggesting she stop the trazodone and begin taking serzone at bedtime. She also tales claritin and doc just started her on flonase. She frequently takes OTC antihistamines for frequent alergy/sinus problems. I am concerned about the OTC antihistamine use and serzone. Also should she be weaned off trazodone first? and is Prozac and serzone a good combo...I've not heard of it in the past...any and all thouights appreciated!! Thanks!

 

Re: combination of prozac and serzone

Posted by Toby on August 24, 1998, at 13:32:12

In reply to combination of prozac and serzone, posted by karen gibble on August 23, 1998, at 15:32:33

What and how much psychotherapy is your patient getting for the PTSD? If she has been in fairly consistent psychotherapy for a long time and has only minimally improved as far as the "physical" symptoms of the PTSD, like the nightmares, flashbacks, hyperarousal kind of symptoms, you might want to consider referring her for EMDR (look at www.emdr.com for a listing of therapists in your area) to quickly get rid of those symptoms. That will make her depression easier to treat. (Depression and PTSD together is like having a clogged drain. You can pour Draino (antidepressants) in the sink all you want, but if you don't get rid of the hairball (trauma) the sink is going to stay full of nasty water.)
As far as changing her meds, she could probably stay on the trazodone along with the Serzone at night. Serzone and Prozac is a "heroic" but not unheard of combo. The two are different enough in their actions that they can be safely taken together. If the doctor wants her off the trazodone altogether, a cross taper would be the most reasonable way to do that.
Serzone cannot be taken with Seldane or Hismanal. Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec are OK.


This is the end of the thread.


Show another thread

URL of post in thread:


Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ


[dr. bob] Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD, bob@dr-bob.org

Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.