Posted by azalea on October 3, 2008, at 19:04:22
In reply to least effective fluoxetine dosing strategy?, posted by linkadge on October 3, 2008, at 18:17:06
Fluoxetine has a very long half life as well as an active metabolite. This also means it takes a while to get to steady state. Quoting wikipedia, "the concentration of the drug [fluoxetine] and its active metabolite [norfluoxetine] in the blood continues to grow through the first few weeks of treatment, and their steady concentration in the blood is achieved only after four weeks. Moreover, the brain concentration of fluoxetine and its metabolites keeps increasing through at least the first five weeks of treatment. That means that the full benefits of the current dose a patient receives are not realized for at least a month since its initiation. For example, in one 6-week study, the median time to achieving consistent response was 29 days."
Because of this, you probably want to take it everyday for the 1st few months at least. Fluoxetine is available as a $4 presciption for a 30 day supply at Kroger, Target, and Walmart.
> Hi, I am going to be starting a regiment of fluoxetine and dexedrine.
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> I have heard that fluoxetine can taken effectively every second or third day. Does anybody have experience or data on such a regiment?
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> Linkadge
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poster:azalea
thread:855597
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080926/msgs/855604.html