How Should I Resume Taking Paroxetine After Discontinuing It For A Short Time?

Posted on Thu, 8 Mar 2018

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 8 Mar 2018 Answered on

Thu, 7 Mar 2019 Last reviewed on

Question : I had stopped taking my anti-anxiety/depression medication paroxetine hcl 40 mg several months ago and need to start taking them again. How should I begin to resume taking them?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Soujanya (31 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
It can be started with the initial dose of 12.5mg.

Detailed Answer:

Hi,

I have gone through your query and understand your concern that you are worried about restarting the drug Paroxetine.

It can be usually started with an initial dose of 12.5mg, but please let me know your indication for which it was taken in the past, either anxiety or depression or both?

Please describe your symptoms in a bit more details so that I can suggest you another drug to prevent weight gain, as you are already worried about.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Soujanya (40 minutes later)

Indication for taking this medication is both anxiety and depression. My multi-tasking skills has declined dramatically which causes me a great deal of stress with anxiety and having great difficulty concentrating on one task at a time causing me to make many errors than at its peak results in depression.

Also, I have a loss of apetite. I only eat once a day. Prefer to smoke during my lunch time.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Soujanya (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
My suggestion.

Detailed Answer:

Hi,

I'm sorry for the delayed reply.

I have gone through your details and can understand that you are suffering from both anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Difficulty in concentrating, decreased problem-solving skills, multitasking capacity may get affected, as because these are symptoms of depression.

If you are worried about weight gain, you can prefer other antidepressants like Escitalopram, which is very effective with the least possible side effects.

And I would like to know whether you have any memory disturbances.

Considering disturbance in cognitive skills such as concentration difficulties, multitasking problem, it needs to be ruled out any memory disturbances.

Hope this information would help you.

Regards,
Dr. Soujanya, Psychiatrist

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana