PAXIL Reviews (PAROXETINE HYDROCHLORIDE)

Average Rating: 2.9 (1018 Ratings)

Filter Results

Compare PAXIL with similar:
 ANTIDEPRESSANTS

 Type: Rx Drug

  

PAXIL  (PAROXETINE HYDROCHLORIDE):  Paroxetine is used to treat depression, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It works by helping to restore the balance of a certain natural substance (serotonin) in the brain. Paroxetine is known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). This medication may improve your mood, sleep, appetite, and energy level and may help restore your interest in daily living. It may decrease fear, anxiety, unwanted thoughts, and the number of panic attacks. It may also reduce the urge to perform repeated tasks (compulsions such as hand-washing, counting, and checking) that interfere with daily living.   FDA Approval Date: 1992-12-29 (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)

  

Results are sorted by length of time drug was taken from shortest to longest duration (reviews with no time reported listed first).

Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.)
5=HIGH (this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.)

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51


RATING  REASONSIDE EFFECTS FOR PAXILCOMMENTSSEXAGEDURATION/
DOSAGE
DATE ADDED
 
 1  depression M 48 6 weeks
1X day
4/15/2010
 5  Severe Anxiety, Severe Depression initial side effects only - teeth clenching, excessive saliva, slight nausea, jitteriness, tingling, wanting to jump out of my skin Don't give up on Paxil because of initial side effects. It is very hard to get through them but do it. They will go away once the Paxil kicks in. This is the best medicine for anxiety out there. I am always hungry on it but thin. Just eat well and exercise and you can fight the weight gain other people talk about. My anxiety is gone as well as depression. I was on a very low dosage to start which I thought was strange 1/4 of 10mg up to 20mg week by week but it was smart considering the initial side effects. Do not start out on a high dosage. I was on it 3 years ago at 40mg and had tremmors but it worked well before and I had no withdrawal reducing the dosage slowly. It is a strong drug and took 6 weeks to work for me but it works. F 61 6.5 weeks
20 MG 1X day
10/27/2014
Email
 5  Depression night sweats the first two weeks but no other side effects since. Looking back I've probably had long term depression. Over the past 2 years I had marriage problems, my wife had health problems, mid-life issues, job stress, and I recently broke my hip. I could no longer function. I began 20 mg. 7 weeks ago and increased to 30 mg. 3 weeks ago. Paxil saved my life. I no longer obsess about negative events and my stress level has fallen dramatically. I no longer cry two to three time a week and I can focus much better at work. If I continue to feel like this, I have no problem staying on Paxil for the rest of my life. M 52 7 weeks
7/30/2009
 5  ocd slight headaches, some dizziness, grinding teeth I love paxil, so does everyone I am around. I finally feel like me again. I CAN SLEEP NOW, I eat more, which that is a good thing for me. I can concentrate and get out of bed. Paxil isn't for everyone, it works for some and is not right for others. those who do not like paxil, should switch and you should never try to quit any drug cold turkey without Doctors consent. F 21 7 weeks
9/1/2002
Email
 1  Anxiety Disorder I experienced very dry mouth with sore tongue. I also experienced tremors in different parts of my body. Sometimes a twitching arm or leg or even my whole torso would convulse while trying to fall asleep which did not help the insomnia. Foggy headed with occasional dizziness was pretty constant from about week 3 to week 7. I had itchy skin all over and some dryness but the dryness may not be caused by Paxi. Overall, the negatives highly outweighed the benefit. Actually, I can't see any benefit since after I stopped taking Paxil, my anxiety dimished. I don't think this was the right drug for me. Also, after relating my symptoms to my doctor in week 6 on Paxil he DOUBLED my dose to 40mg/day. It was shortly after that when things got very bad. I abruptly quit and am still having slight side effects one month later however, they are definitely diminishing. I am very happy to not be on Paxil and am instead seeing a psychologist who does cognitive behavioral therapy. The only side-effect of that is my smaller bank account. :-) M 35 7 weeks
5/3/2006
Email
 3  anxiety extreme sweating at night, extremely tired at all times, yawning, gritting teeth, no sexual desire, some dry mouth Seemed to help with anxiety but didn't want to put up with the side effects. Now I'm tapering off of Paxil and starting Zoloft. M 45 8 weeks
5/29/2001
 1  Depression anxiety Hostile angry irritable. It was aweful and I hope I never feel like that again in my life. I snapped on my kids and my husband. I couldn't find joy in anything. It worsened my depression and anxiety and made me nauseous F 34 8 weeks
20mg
9/6/2012
 1  Anxiety and minor depression. 1. Colossal sweet tooth resulting in ten pound weight gain in six weeks. 2. Extreme apathy and loss of ambition. So while I was sitting there gaining weight, I'd just think, The Paxil worked. That's why it's too bad. But obviously the negatives outweighed the positives. So far the withdrawl isn't too bad. Split the pill in half for a week, and am now a few days into quarters (2.5 mg). I have noticed some inexplicable outbursts of rage, but I can usually hold them in and chalk it up to withdrawl. After a week I'll start crushing it and licking up bits of pill dust, I mean it, after reading all the warnings about serious tapering. I've heard you can get it in liquid but I don't think my doctor will do that for me as she got in a huge snit when I told her about the side effects and that I was going to go off the pill. Apparently all these physiological problems are all F 34 8 weeks
3/22/2005
 1  Anxiety and depression. 1. Colossal sweet tooth resulting in ten pound weight gain in six weeks. 2. Extreme apathy and loss of ambition. So while I was sitting there gaining weight, I'd just think, The Paxil worked. That's why it's too bad. But obviously the negatives outweighed the positives. So far the withdrawl isn't too bad. Split the pill in half for a week, and am now a few days into quarters (2.5 mg). I have noticed some inexplicable outbursts of rage, but I can usually hold them in and chalk it up to withdrawl. After a week I'll start crushing it and licking up bits of pill dust, I mean it, after reading all the warnings about serious tapering. I've heard you can get it in liquid but I don't think my doctor will do that for me as she got in a huge snit when I told her about the side effects and that I was going to go off the pill. Apparently all these physiological problems are all F 34 8 weeks
3/22/2005
 5  depression M 46 9 weeks
7/19/2004
 5  Depression, anxiety dry mouth, constipation This is the best anti-depressant I have ever taken and I've taken a lot of them. It started to work for me in a few days vs. the weeks other drugs took. Even though some people gain weight on it I have lost weight. I have no appetite any more which is a good thing for me. I also have lots of energy. Before I took Paxil I had no desire to do anything but sit around or stay in bed. I feel like a new person. I just hope that it keeps on working for me like this. F 40 1 months
6/7/2002
 4  Social Anxiety Disorder Initially a very odd type of yawn which occurred when changing activities. Wide wide yawns which tingle and feel somewhat good, but happened too often. Nauseous for the first 2 days, but not puke-worthy. Somewhat zombie-like, dilated pupils. Maybe a bit shaky. Difficulty ejaculating, even the first night I took 20 mg, but still possible. I went up to 40 mg at which time could not ejaculate for the life of me, regardless of how much porn and/or sex was involved. It seems that this side effect is dose-dependent. The drowsiness can be a big issue for some and might stick around, but it seems that this side effect can go away. I haven't noticed any weight gain yet. ***Recommendation for a smoother withdrawal: get a prescription for the liquid formulation. It makes it much much easier to taper off the drug in fine, tiny increments. Alternatively, ask your doctor if you can switch to an SSRI with a longer half life (fluoxetine is the one!) and taper coarsely off from that. The long half lif I will go back down to 20 mg as studies apparently indicate that there is not much benefit beyond 20 mg for social anxiety at least. 20 mg is the reccomended starting dose, and also the maintenance dose. Very effective SSRI for me, more so than Lexapro. My hypothesis as to why it is indicated for social anxiety is because it is one of the more sedating SSRI's. Play around with the best time to take it - If you get drowsy from it, like I do, try taking it at night. If it keeps you up, take it in the morning. You may also want to take into account the usual time you are sexually active, try spacing the dose as far away from that time as possible (at least 12 hrs) i.e., if you are sexually active at night, try taking it in the morning so the drug level will be somewhat low in your system by nighttime. You can also try taking Wellbutrin in addition to the paxil. M 22 1 months
20-40 mg 1X day
4/13/2013
Email

History
 4  panic disorder, agoraphobia Decreased sex drive. Cannot orgasm. This drug has helped me sooo much with my anxiety and panic attacks. I went from going on a medical leave from work and never leaving my house, to being able to fly to Florida and have fun on vacation! But, i have absolutely NO sex drive and in the very rare occasion that i do, i can't orgasm. It has been really frustrating. The drug is great for my anxiety, but I dont know if ic can stay on it for a long time with my side effect. Also i heard withdrawl is horrible and that really scares me because Im on a pretty high dose. F 21 1 months
40mg 1X day
7/25/2012
 4   Strange dreams, jitters, involuntary muscle movements, cramps, spacieness, difficult but not impossible orgasms. I was alarmed at during the first two weeks at my inablity to orgasm, even solo. Generally, Paxil has helped my anxiety problem greatly. I was having a lot of difficulty in public situtions, to the point where I would hardly leave home. This is my first experience with a SSRI, and honestly I would have found this useful much earlier in my life. The sexual problems caused by this drug were temporary, thank God. Actually, orgasms seem to be more intense now than ever. I am only on 10mg, so I suspect this make be more difficult to overcome at higher doses. M 38 1 months
10 MG 1X day
2/15/2010
 4  Panic disorder Started at 10mg and felt drugged, wild dreams, feet tingling, loss of libido. Reduced to 5mg and all side effects went away. Also helps to eat with food F 44 1 months
5
11/27/2011
 3  stress None F 42 1 months
11/11/2003
 3  Anxiety First week woke up with night sweats. After three weeks, unable to orgasm at ALL. By fourth week, felt like it stopped working. M 27 1 months
6/21/2007
 3  depression & anxiety Tons of weight gain and 'ticks' or involuntary muscle spasms. It was great for my depression and axiety, but the side effects became too much. F 37 1 months
5/22/2007
 2   It made it IMPOSSIBLE to orgasm! No thanks. M 30 1 months
10/15/2009
 2  Major Depression/ Anxiety I constantly felt tired. I would sleep every chance I got. My family had a very hard time getting me up in the mornings. There were times they litterally had to pull me out of bed. I was okay for the first two weeks on it. But, then I started to get more depressed. I couldn't handle it. I ended up switching back to Celexa that I had been on the previous 6 months before. Celexa works better for me. F 22 1 months
4/14/2001

Previous Page       Next Page

BACK TO TOP