questions about getting off of effexor & transitioning to lexapro

[alison77]

so i'm wondering how exactly to do this.  once i figured out that it was not the best drug for me i have been slowly weaning down by taking one or two little balls of medicine out of the capsules per day (from 37.5 mg).  then i had an appt with pdoc, who said instead of getting off that way, to take the same amt of med every other day for two weeks then stop and start on the new med i'll be taking (lexapro).  i've tried that, and i have the withdrawal symptoms for two days that way, so i'd like an easier method if possible.  pdoc also said that i shouldn't introduce the new drug until totally discontinuing the effexor, which i thought was strange because that's how i had gotten on effexor . . . .

basically, so i think that the best method for me might be to continue as i am, taking out 1-2 of the med balls out of the capsule each day until i'm down to 0.  however, i would like to start 5 mg of lexapro soon as i'm noticing anxiety/small panic attacks starting already (prob am now at 20 mg of effexor). 

has anyone been through this and can share their experiences?

thanks!

[greencarnation]

I went the other way, lexapro to effexor, and my doctors cross tapered. When I tried zoloft for a bit, we cross tapered both on it, and then off when I went back to effexor. I would get another opinion, as the method your doctor is using sounds weird to me.

[alison77]

thanks for your reply.  that's why i was confused b/c i had cross tapered going off of lexapro to effexor (to try it out) and then expected the same thing was possible the other way but she had said no.  what i ended up doing was just reducing the number of medicine balls in each capsule by 1-2 each day until i was down to about 10 left, then realizing i had forgotten to take it the previous day and not having the side effects jumped over to smaller dose of lexapro.  so it worked out in the end:)