Lexapro taper

[Anonymous]

My 13 year old DD's psychiatrist is being inflexible. He insists that he has never in the history of his practice seen withdrawal symptoms from discontinuing Lexapro. She has gone from 10 mg to 5 mg. After a week on 5 mg, she is experiencing great fatigue. I would like for her to stay at 5 mg for about 6 more weeks to stabilize. He would either like for her to quit cold turkey or to go back to 10 mg, because the fatigue must be a sign of "returning depression." (his words) We are now out of meds. It takes some time to get a new psychiatrist. What would you do? I'm really angry that he is not deferring to my mother's instinct at all. By the way, on the one day that she did take no medicine, she experienced nausea and awakened in the middle of the night (this awakening otherwise NEVER happens).

[Anonymous]

This sounds reasonable to me. My 22 year old had similar symptoms which we attributed to a virus, but I now think was withdrawal. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Coming off of Lexapro is tough. My psych prescribed Prozac to help through the transition along with a very specific taper plan. By the end, I was taking a quarter of my original dose, every other day.

If your psych won't prescribe meds for a longer taper period for your child, try her GP while you're looking for a another psychiatrist.

[Anonymous]

My adult daughter and husband are on Lexapro, and it makes good sense that you would have her cut down to .5mg for a few weeks and then even to .25 if the bill can be split. I have no idea about fatigue. If you think she needs to continue the Lexapro maybe ask Dr. Jerk for a refill and look for a new psychiatrist who has a focus on teens/young adults wiith depression and anxiety. I guess if I had to say one thing, it is that it is so hard to predict how things will go. For both my daughter and my husband, they were symptom free for a long period of time and then an incident would set them off and cause their systems to react to. Just keep an eye on her in the years ahead and be proactive, and the best thing might be keeping up a relationship with a therapist for her to know she has an outlet. Then this person can advise you if medication might ever be considered again.

[Anonymous]

OP -- Great advice, everyone! Dr. Rigid was willing to prescribe 2 days worth of Prozac or to go back to the original Lexapro dosage. Nothing in between. Miraculously, the pharmacy found a refill on file, so we have enough until an appointment with a new doctor a month from now. Thank you, everybody!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP -- Great advice, everyone! Dr. Rigid was willing to prescribe 2 days worth of Prozac or to go back to the original Lexapro dosage. Nothing in between. Miraculously, the pharmacy found a refill on file, so we have enough until an appointment with a new doctor a month from now. Thank you, everybody!

Did Dr. Rigid say WHY he didn't believe in tapering?

[Anonymous]

What psych is crazy enough to think a teen (who already is dealing with hormones) should go cold turkey quitting any mood or behavioral drug?! Report him, if you can!

[Anonymous]

Dr. Rigid says that Lexapro's half-life is too long to promote withdrawal symptoms. Fatigue and lack of appetite are, in his words, a return of depression. I feel sorry for his other patients who might never get off their meds. I spoke to another psychiatrist on the phone last night, and his recommendation for a taper was even slower and more cautious than my ideas. Dr. Rigid thinks that 5 mg of Lexapro is only a placebo, and therefore, useless.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Rigid is nuts. Withdrawal symptoms from Lexapro are pretty much the same as when you start it. Some people stabilize within a week, others can take up to 8 weeks. (I felt better in about 6.) Fatigue, dizziness, nausea and headaches are the most common symptoms. Any of which could be the cause of the lack of appetite.

Unfortunately, my depression did return, so keep an eye out for that. However, it was almost 6 months before I noticed the return of my anxiety and depression symptoms. One week of a half dose tells you next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Rigid says that Lexapro's half-life is too long to promote withdrawal symptoms. Fatigue and lack of appetite are, in his words, a return of depression. I feel sorry for his other patients who might never get off their meds. I spoke to another psychiatrist on the phone last night, and his recommendation for a taper was even slower and more cautious than my ideas. Dr. Rigid thinks that 5 mg of Lexapro is only a placebo, and therefore, useless.

Sounds off to me. Have worked some with drug addicts, who typically report going off heroin is much easier than going off methadone, which has a half life of two weeks compared to two or three days for heroin. But I am not expert in this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Rigid says that Lexapro's half-life is too long to promote withdrawal symptoms. Fatigue and lack of appetite are, in his words, a return of depression. I feel sorry for his other patients who might never get off their meds. I spoke to another psychiatrist on the phone last night, and his recommendation for a taper was even slower and more cautious than my ideas. Dr. Rigid thinks that 5 mg of Lexapro is only a placebo, and therefore, useless.

If it's a placebo, it's a placebo. If it's a med, it's a med, though the dosage may be too low for noticeable side effects, you can have withdrawal anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Rigid says that Lexapro's half-life is too long to promote withdrawal symptoms. Fatigue and lack of appetite are, in his words, a return of depression. I feel sorry for his other patients who might never get off their meds. I spoke to another psychiatrist on the phone last night, and his recommendation for a taper was even slower and more cautious than my ideas. Dr. Rigid thinks that 5 mg of Lexapro is only a placebo, and therefore, useless.

I don't think that is a mathematically complete answer.

Not the same, but doctors backed off tapering prednisone for a few years -- I would taper anyway, which did screw up dosing, but you do what you can do. I got in to a big argument with a doctor friend about that (it really isn't that sophisticated why we taper). Well, tapering is back in style again.

I'm glad you found a new doctor.

[Anonymous]

I know this is a bit old, but you can cut Lexapro in half, so if you are really hard up, you can accept the 10 mg prescription from your inflexible doctor and just have her take half a pill a day. My doc is increasing my dose slowly and I have been taking half pills with no problem.