Does Oxycodone Interact With Fluoxetine?

Posted on Fri, 3 Nov 2017

Question: I had been taking 90 mgs of oxycodone a day but had a severe reaction when started taking fluoxetine 20 mgs and it blocked the oxycodone causing serotonin syndrome. So I was extremely sick with severe symptoms (intense anxiety, insomnia, muscle aches, couldn't breath, hyperventilating, extreme shakiness, cold sweats, and extremely lethargic). I had to stop both medications. I went to the ER and after 3 weeks of these symptoms I finally started taking 25 mgs of oxycodone and started feeling better. My question now is how can I taper off the 25 mgs of oxycodone to get completely off the oxycodone and not go through the horrific opiate withdrawals. The initial bad reaction caused me to be out of work for 4 weeks (via FMLA). I am not able to continue to miss work. Please advise how I can taper with minor withdrawals.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Gradual dose reduction by 5 mg dose will not cause withdrawal.

Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for asking from HCM

I can understand your concern. You are now on 25 mg dose and this is not a high dose. Gradual dose reduction will help in reducing the risk of withdrawal. You can reduce the dose by 5 mg every week and then the dose can be completely stopped at the end of 4-5 weeks.

You might suffer body ache, pain in muscles when you will stop taking 5 mg dose abruptly but that will last for few days only. Concomitant use of a painkiller will help to reduce the pain. This will cause mild withdrawal only.

Thanks and Take care

Please don't hesitate to ask again for more doubts.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar