Question:
Help please, my husband has been taking 100m of Serzone twice a day for about 5 weeks. It seemed to work the first week or two then he seemed more depressed. The Dr. recommended increasing his dose to 250m then 300m. He got up to 250 and it seemed to make his panic worse. Has anyone else had this effect? He just started taking Buspar a few days ago. Also has anyone heard is Claritin or Flonase react at all with these drugs. We also don’t understand how Serzone and Buspar can work together without cancelling each other out, when one increases serontonin and the other decreases it.
Hi and welcome at ASAP! Neither Serzone nor buspar are first choice meds for panic. Serzone can work well though if combined with Xanax as these meds have an enhacing effect upon each other. Maybe you have a benzophobic doctor who won’t prescribe Xanax? Buspar has proven to be of little value with panic and *some* value for GAD. So you might ask your doctor to prescribe Xanax alongside Serzone or try another AD instead of Serzone (Prozac? or maybe a TCA like imipramine?) or try the *all benzo* route and have Klonopin prescribed for maintenance alongside with Xanax *as needed* (or also at a daily dose; this combination of two benzo’s seems to work really very well with many people although not much is to be found in the literature as this is a recent idea). YMMV etc. Hope this helps some. Philip – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –
Response:
Help please, my husband has been taking 100m of Serzone twice a day for about 5 weeks. It seemed to work the first week or two then he seemed more depressed. The Dr. recommended increasing his dose to 250m then 300m. He got up to 250 and it seemed to make his panic worse. Has anyone else had this effect? He just started taking Buspar a few days ago. Also has anyone heard is Claritin or Flonase react at all with these drugs. We also don’t understand how Serzone and Buspar can work together without cancelling each other out, when one increases serontonin and the other decreases it.
Response:
The Dr. recommended increasing his dose to 250m then 300m. He got up to 250 and it seemed to make his panic worse. Has anyone else had this effect? He just started taking Buspar a few days ago. Also has anyone heard is Claritin or Flonase react at all with these drugs. We also don’t understand how Serzone and Buspar can work together without cancelling each other out, when one increases serontonin and the other decreases it.
Serzone corrects serotonin / norepinephrine dysregulation in the brain. It’s called an Anti-Depressant but it is effective treating may other disorders (PTSD, PD). The idea with the Buspar is to add an anti-anxiety agent to complement the Serzone. Having said that, I would suggest Xanax instead of Buspar (Buspar is USELESS against panic). I would try something like this in combination with Serzone: If he’s on 100mg 2X a day – keep him there for now, but add a low dose of Xanax say .5mg 2X/3X a day. Increase or decrease the Xanax dosage as required. Then if necessary start upping the Serzone again – (very, very slowly).. and OF COURSE Increase or decrease the Xanax dosage as required again. If your doctor is reluctant to try Xanax like this – CHANGE DOCTORS! YES it is very common for anxiety/panic to worsen as the Serzone dose goes up…. (hence the Xanax). This will should settle down with time. I’m not a doctor – but this is the med regime that has helped me with almost *no* side effects! I take 400mg Serzone + .5mg Xanax each day… (for several months now) YMMV of course. Cheers, Mike from OZ
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