# Luvox doesn't seem to be working



## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

It's been 3 weeks since I took my first Luvox med and so far it's done nothing to ease my images. They're still as bothersome as ever.

Currently I'm on 25 mg. Been on this dose for 1 week...before that it was 12.5 mg.....For those in the know wrt Luvox is it normal to wait for a long period of time until you see change?, and for OCD treatment, is a much higher dose recommended? 
I read somewhere 100mg -150mg is the ideal dose for OCD.


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## a ibrahim (Oct 29, 2004)

Searching little about luvox dose you can find that luvox starting dose is 50 mg and can be increased to 300 mg for adults.
And the starting dose is 25 mg and can be increased to 200 mg for pediatric population.
According to that your 12.5 and 25 mg dose is low.
Anxiety mostly needs high dose of SSRIs.

http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/fluvox_ids.htm


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

Start at 50mg then increase up to 300mg/day. It's gonna take about 3-6 weeks for side-effects to subdue and for med to really start working to a good potential. Before you change meds, give it about 4-8 weeks for a full trial. You aren't at all on a high dose, and I'm not sure why you even started so low, so you still got awhile to titrate up


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

*Re: re: Luvox doesn't seem to be working*



a ibrahim said:


> Anxiety mostly needs high dose of SSRIs.


This isn't always true. SSRIs are stimulants. Depressed patients need stimulation to get out of bed and do things. An anxiety patients does not this stimulation. Instead, they need to relax. For instance, let's look at Lexapro. With anxiety patients? You start at 5mg and titrate to maybe 10mg. If that doesn't work, then go to 20mg. But, a doc will tell you that most of the time, patients will get more anxyolitic benefit from the 5mg than from the 10mg. 10mg is too stimulating for some anxiety patients, whereas 5mg is just enough to block the reuptake of the serotonin, without stimulating the patient too much.

You're right that OCD (which is an anxiety disorder) needs higher doses. But OCD is also a totally serotonin afflicted disorder. It's not like SA. In fact, with Paxil, you'd be looking at doses between 40-60mg (quite high for Paxil), or Prozac 60-80mg, and with Zoloft at around 200mg (pretty high, also)


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## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

Well it's as simple as this. If I can't get rid of my images, there's no point in living this [email protected]#$ed up life anymore. I just can't operate with these things in my head. On the other hand, if I can get rid of my images, I'll be the happiest man in the world.
Today I increased my dose without getting approval from my doc. I don't care, I can't wait anymore and today was fu$$ed. And yeah you guys are right. My dose has been too low. I'm just wasting precious time.


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

Billy, don't increase anything without doctor approval. The risks do not outweigh the benefits, trust me. These things take time and patience. Most of us have neither. But if we really wanna get better, we need to give our meds time. Be smart with your meds and don't let impulsiveness get the best of you


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## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

Thanks for the replying Speakeasy. So I went from 25 mg to 50 mg last night....should I just keep on with this increase I made? or should I go back to the 25 mg.


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

How long you been on it?


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## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

OK, for the few out there who have tried Luvox, what was your dosage that worked for you?
I've been on 50 mg for the past week and still there has been not the slightest change. This is really pissing me off. I need my OCD and anxiety to go away....4 weeks on Luvox and I still have all my problems.


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

billy said:


> OK, for the few out there who have tried Luvox, what was your dosage that worked for you?
> I've been on 50 mg for the past week and still there has been not the slightest change. This is really pissing me off. I need my OCD and anxiety to go away....4 weeks on Luvox and I still have all my problems.


You can augment the dose quite a bit from 50mg, but you need to talk to your doc. No one here is a doc and is any position to tell you what to do with your meds. We can give suggestions, but in the end, you really need to talk to your doc. 50mg Luvox for OCD is fairly low of a dose, so there's definitely room to up it. Also, give your med about 4-6 weeks before judging ultimate efficacy (but this doesn't count for you yet, since you're on a very low dose). Keep up the good work and stay patient. Keep in mind that a max dose of 300mg is feasible, so you're at only a fraction of that dose. I'm not sure why your doc hasn't augmented the dose, so you may wanna talk to him/her


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## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

Woohoo I just saw my doc and she said I can increase my dose to 100 mg... Can't wait till tonight. She even gave me some free sample meds....but I found that a bit weird.


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## billy (Feb 15, 2006)

Crap.....After my increase in dose to 100mg there does seem to be some improvement in erasing the images I get in my head....however I think I'm developing a nasty side effect... severe anxiety/paranoia esp. when walking down a flight of stairs with other people around me. Just a few minutes ago as I approached the top of the stairs at a train station, I froze and my legs turned to cement at the top of the stairs. I could not go down them. My legs started trembling with fear as I placed one leg on the first step. I just couldn't go down them as others were behind me. I ended up waiting for everyone to go, and grabbed the rail handle like an old woman as I made my way down.

I can't live like this. Could this be a side effect from my meds? Is it temporary?


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