Taking Multiple Medications

[teacher11]

I use to take 20mg of Lexapro and 60mg of Adderall together and my doctor changed my medication of Lexapro to 40mg of Paxil. Is it ok to take Adderall, Paxil, and Lexapro together? Having withdrawl or something? Can't sleep or sit still. What should I do? Will it mess you up to take 20mg of lexapro and 40mg of paxil together?????

[AnneMarie]

Call your doc before you do anything on your own.

[Anna]

yes, I'm confused, from what you wrote it seems your doctor changed your SSRI rather than asking you to take both together. You need to call him immediately.

The agitation is more likely to be taking too much SSRI all together than any kind of withdrawal.

With SSRIs you do not need to cross taper, really, unless your doc is super cautious. You can simply switch from one to the other at the appropriate, similar dosage, and shouldn't really get any withdrawal effects, as they all really work similarly (you can do this with AAPs, too, though it's a bit trickier).

What you are feeling is not w/d as you are not withdrawing from anything. You are taking too MUCH of something.

please call the doc's answering service, or he/she doesn't have one go to an urgent care center today and get some medical advice on what to do, immediately.

Serotonin syndrome, while not that frequent, is nothing to play around with. Nor is being on too high a dose of AD, period, really.

Anna

ETA: If, in fact, I am misreading and you have simply made the switch from lexapro to paxil and are considering re-adding the lexapro to deal with some sort of w/d syndrome, then no, don't. Call your doctor and tell him your sx and ask him about a more gradual cross taper. It's possible that the paxil is too activating for you (this can happen to some folks) so you may simply need a lower dose of paxil, or to cross taper to deal with coming off lex or something, but for the love of god, don't take them both together.