From: lady@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Lee Lady)
Subject: Re: Effects of Prozac et al.
Followup-To: sci.med
Summary: My experience was very different.  
Organization: University of Hawaii (Mathematics Dept)
Distribution: sci
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 01:01:30 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.132240.3963@bb1t.monsanto.com> tjfeue@bb1t.monsanto.com writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.183413.5052@ac.dal.ca>, fairbro@ac.dal.ca writes:
>> I would like to hear from people who have been treated for depression with 
>> drugs like Prozac, from what I've read it takes about 2-6 weeks for these
>> anti-depressants to take effect. Do you just wake up one day and feel great 
>> or do you just realize that your not depressed any more? Or is it more gradual
>> so that you can start to feel yourself improve day after day?
>
>Welllllllll,  Prozac has a very long serum half life.  The build up will
>be slow at the recommended dosages, but since it has a cumulative effect 
>in the blood stream it will also will leave the system very
>slowly after it is withdrawn.  This helps the body get used to being 
>without it.  Also, depression becomes a "habit" after  ...

Well, my experience was extremely different.  When I started taking
Prozac, from the very first day I felt very hyper for the first hour or
two after I took the capsule.  Then I would calm down, but I seemed to
feel more energetic than usual until late afternoon.  In late afternoon,
I would take a nap -- which is normal for me -- and have no trouble
getting to sleep.  Then when I woke up from my nap, I felt totally
exhausted.  Some evenings, even getting out of bed and putting a frozen
dinner in the microwave seemed to take more energy than I could
muster.  I'd finally go to sleep for the night earlier than usual and
sleep soundly till the next morning.

Also, during the evening I would feel *incredibly* depressed.  I felt
totally convinced that my life was absolutely useless and that I'd never
be able to cope with any of the things that needed to be done.  It's easy
for me to understand that someone taking Prozac could be suicidal.  

Then the next morning I'd pop another Prozac and the cycle would begin
over again.  (I didn't dare take a Prozac in the evening for fear of not
being able to sleep.)  

It took between a month and two before I began to adjust to the Prozac
and be more or less okay in the evenings.  At that point I was also not
getting much of a buzz in the morning.  For a while I tried taking one in
the morning and one in the early afternoon, but the second one didn't
seem to have much effect.  

After several months my legs started being extremely twitchy at night and I
had trouble getting to sleep.  Finally, rather apprehensively, I just cut
off the Prozac completely.  (I'd also moved in the meantime and didn't
want to go through the hassle of finding another psychiatrist when my
supply ran out.)  

When I stopped taking Prozac, I didn't notice any change at all.  My
legs were still twitchy for months afterwards.  Maybe that didn't even
have anything to do with the Prozac.  Finally I found a quinine-based
OTC medication (Legatrin) that helped with that problem.  (My psychiatrist 
had just shrugged when I told him about it.  He never was very useful.)

Then, about a year later, in the middle of winter, I was going through a
period of being very apathetic and having a hard time being motivated to
do anything.  One day there were some things I just had to do, and I
couldn't seem to find any energy to do them, and finally, late morning, I
decided "What the hell" and popped a Prozac.  And...  All I can say is
that it was like a switch had been turned on in my head.  You know, like
when you have a motor that's only running at half speed because there's a
loose connection and then you shake it or kick it or something and the
connection becomes good and the motor is running at normal speed again.
Or like a very gloomy, cloudy day and then suddenly the sun comes out.  

I was back to the original cycle.  Energy during the day and then total
exhaustion and extreme depression at night.  But this time, I didn't take
another Prozac the next morning.  That one capsule seemed to last me for
about a year.  

Then, last winter, another very slow apathetic period for me and so
finally again, in desperation, I popped another Prozac.  Same thing:  the
switch went on, I was alive again and then exhausted and depressed in the
evening.  But the next day I was fine, pretty much my normal self and
didn't take any more Prozac.  I'm hoping that capsule will last me until
next winter.  

Something that occurred to me the last time though:  What I felt in the
evening after taking a Prozac was maybe not so much exhaustion as ...
wooziness.  As if my body were fighting off some toxin.  And on that
hypothesis I tried drinking a lot of water and getting outside and
walking around quite a bit, but that was apparently not such a great idea
because I had a hard time getting to sleep then.  

Anyway, that was my experience.  One data point.  I've never heard of
anybody else reacting to Prozac like that.  But then I was never totally
convinced that my problem was depression in the first place.  

--
Lee Lady                                               
Dept of Mathematics                      lady@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu   
University of Hawaii                     lady@uhunix.bitnet
Honolulu, HI  96822