How To Withdraw From Serequel Slowly Without Any Side Effects?

Posted on Thu, 5 Feb 2015

Question: I suffer from severe depression ,anxiety ,fibromyalgia. I take lexepro, trilifon amd seraquel. I am trying to get off sereqel because it made me gain 70 pounds. Anytime I mess with sereqel I become unstable. We tried switching over to composeen and I did well for awhile, the nice thing was I did mot feel so sedated. And I felt more. Especially more happy feelings. My phychiatrist says he has another idea of a drug. I am just curious of what you may recomend.

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (47 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Cymbalta would be the choice.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Welcome to HCM.

You suffer from severe depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.

In my opinion, the other drugs which will suits best in your case would be:

1. Lyrica (Pregabalin): It acts as a mood stabiliser, anti-anxiety and has been indicated in fibromyalgia. This also has sedation to help sleep and far less weight gain then seroquel.

2. Cymbalta (Duloxetine): It is serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. It is an antidepressant drug and also indicated in fibromyalgia with wonderful results. However, it does not cause sedation. Drugs like ativan can be given along with this for inducing sleep. There are no problems of weight gain.

3. Neurontin (Gabapentin): It acts as a mood stabiliser, anti-anxeity, has sedation and fairly used in fibromyalgias. Can cause slight wieght gain but less then seroquel.

I think one of these three drugs would be the choice in your case. In my opinion, cymbalta would be best for you among all. This drug singly, can control your depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia and will omit the need of multiple drugs.

Hope this answers your query satisfactorily.

Any further queries are welcome.

Take care.

Thanks.

Dr. Shubham Mehta, MD(Psychiatry).

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

Follow up: Dr. Shubham Mehta (33 minutes later)

I have tried cymbolta and Lyrica with the same results. They made my anxiety worse. Do you have ani other ideas ?

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Savella (milnacipran) is approved for fibromyalgia

Detailed Answer:
Yes, there are other drugs which can be used in fibromyalgia to good effect.

Other than cymbalta, US-FDA has approved the drug savella (milnacipran) for fibromyalgia.

Other drugs which have been studied well in fibromyalgia are:
Effexor (venlafaxine)
Elavil (Amitriptyline)
Pamelor (Nortriptyline).

Added advantage of these drugs are that these act as antidepressant and anti-anxiety agents as well.

Feel free to ask further.

Kindly close the discussion if you have no more queries.
If you wish, you can also ask a direct query at your convenience.

Thanks.
Take care.

Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

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