Suggest Ways To Wean Off Depakote And Prozac

Posted on Fri, 19 May 2017

Question: I need some help. My Dr and therapist are always busy and my psychiatrist only works two days a week. I take 20 mg of Prozac daily plus 2 500 mg of depakote daily plus 100 mg of Lamictal daily. The Prozac makes me angry and I really feel like The other two aren't helping at all. in fact I feel like they're making me worse. My cat my dog and my mom died all within 2 weeks. I'm so tired of trying new meds. I've been doing this since 1997. I'm going to quit taking the Prozac and the depakote and just take the Lamictal. I need to know how I can do this without all of the side effects. Thank you

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Both can be stopped instantly

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
Thanks for posting again at Healthcaremagic.

I have gone through the provided details and understand your concerns about minimal effects of the prescribed medications.

Generally Depakote do not need tapering and can be stopped instantly as there are no withdrawal effects associated with it.

Regarding prozac the chances of withdrawal effects are there but they are very much limited because of long half life (One week). Considering this even prozac can be stopped instantly.

However I feel that it is never a good choice to stop two medications instantly. First you can stop prozac and after four weeks stop depakote.

I am also of the opinion that this decision should be taken in collaboration of your psychiatrist and never all alone.

I hope this answers you.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
In future if you wish to ask any more questions , you can use the below mentioned link to contact me.

http://doctor.healthcaremagic.com/doctors/dr-ashok-kumar/67386

Thanks and regards

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

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