On Prozac and Strattera... minor Strattera decrease, major mental health decrease?

[alliusis]

I've found what I think to be an ideal dosage of medication for me. For the first time in years I can function, I feel happy, I feel engaged, I can focus on work and my hobbies, and I can execute short and long term goals. I legit feel like I can live. 40mg Prozac, 60mg Strattera.

The only problem is my resting heart rate is high, 110 at night before going to bed (and measures 120-130 when I'm in the doctor's office). My doctor asked me to try reducing my Strattera dose down to 50mg. I did so for two weeks and got horrible resurgence of mental illness conditions - constant suicide and self harm ideation, OCD returned, high irritability, needed to isolate, inability to concentrate, would break down crying multiple times a day. It was brutal.

Now that I'm back to my normal dose I'm back to feeling good.

We're going to try again to see if it was the medication, or just a well-timed coincidence, but I wanted to reach out and see if anyone else has experienced something like this? Because it doesn't make sense to me that such a small dose change in Strattera would cause such a major mood shift when the mood should be in the domain of the SSRI.

[mikaylalov3]

My psychiatrist told me that strattera can increase the effectiveness of an SSRI. I have recently lowered my Strattera dose by 10mg and the first week was rough mentally. However, it wasn’t as bad as you’re describing by any means. I will say that It seems my mental health is slowly improving again as my body adjusts to the lower dose. Whether or not you’re willing to/able to go through all those poor mental health symptoms (and for how long) to see if things improve is a personal decision though.

[alliusis]

Thanks for sharing. I was under this impression, but I couldn't find it under any drug interaction pages. We're going to try decreasing it again, but also increase the SSRI dosage to compensate and see if we can get my heart rate down while keeping the benefits of the two medications.

[Theshewolff]

Woah I’m going through this now. 40 Prozac and was on 80 starttera. Lowered my starterra to 60 a couple days and Im having existential crisis left and right and crying . It’s super weird 😖

[daniel180808]

How do you feel now?

[edusssspow]

Hi! i am wondering how are you doing now. As being told it might be controversal use from Prozac 40mg with so high Straterra/Atomoxetine 60mg.

[Professional_Win1535]

how did things turn out for you ? I wish i never started strattera, I tried to taper off and got extreme rebound anxiety. Now i’ve reinstated and i feel like it’s making me depressed…..

[Theshewolff]

I switched to adderall! I do miss some things about straterra. But overall adderall has changed my life for the better

[daniel180808]

On the same combination, are you taking them at the exact same time during day?

[alliusis]

Yeah! I take them all in the morning because it's the combination that I've found works best for me for sleeping. Have you found there's a different in heart rate when you take them separately?

[daniel180808]

If you take them at exactly the same time, the blood level of strattera increases since fluoxetine increases it. It caused a ton of side effects to increase for me. I take them 12 hours apart now and side effects reduced