PAXIL Reviews (PAROXETINE HYDROCHLORIDE)

Average Rating: 2.9 (1018 Ratings)

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 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)

  

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

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RATING  REASONSIDE EFFECTS FOR PAXILCOMMENTSSEXAGEDURATION/
DOSAGE
DATE ADDED
 
 3  Depression, GAD Extreme weight gain, Horrible withdrawal symptoms including: brain zaps, crying, nausea, cold sweats, increased anxiety, insomnia, disorientated, felt like a zombie. I started taking paxil when I was 14 because of anxiety issues and depression. At first it worked, I felt like I came out of my shell and dealt with people better, but i could never miss a dose because of the withdrawals. It wasn't until I was in college that I noticed that I can't depend on this drug forever. When I was 22, I decided to quit cold turkey because my psychiatrist closed his practice and I hated that I depended on this drug. Not wanting to find another docter, I stopped using. The withdrawal didnt last too long and I immediatly started losing weight. I now realize that this drug probably did more harm than good. I don't recommend this drug at all. I wish I had explored other ways to cope with depression and anxiety. F 24 9 years
35mg 1X day
7/5/2010
 1  depression and anxiety head tingles, loss of sex drive for the first few months after starting I want to get off Paxil so bad but I am scared of what the withdrawal will be like. It seems that about ever 6-8 months my dose needs to be increased because it stops working. I asked to get put on something different but my dr at the time didn't want to try anything different and just upped my dose to the max. Paxil has affected my life so negatively. I always feel like i need to feel some sort of "high" on it, whether its from spending money i don't have on something or smoking something. I hate it and I want off it so bad. M 26 2.5 years
60 MB 1X day
7/5/2010
 4  Generalized anxity disorder Weight gain, not much else HOWEVER:Withdrawing from paxil can have some serious consequences like extreme rage in my case, along with heightened anxiety The paxil worked great while I was using (no emotional numbing, could still orgasm fine, overall just more relaxed) it but the weight gain troubled my doctor so we decided to make a switch to wellbutrin which so far seems to be working, but I am still in the withdrawal process from paxil. What your doctor does not mention is that wellbutrin and paxil both have similar side effects when beginning and ending the drug, respectively. As a result I have had a short temper over the last few weeks to the point where I have classified it as rage. If you think you can withstand the food cravings I think paxil is a great drug, I am an engineer so I work at a desk all day and in the end it was not a good drug for me. M 22 4 years
20 1X day
6/26/2010
 1  Anxiety Bad withdrawals. Withdrawals included: nausea, "the zaps", severe fatigue, depersonalization, constricted pupil causing "tunnel-vision", chills and anxiety. While weaning off I had suicidal thoughts. I have been on this for 14 years and I am 28 so who knows what sexual dysfunctions I consider "normal". This medication caused me more distress than my anxiety did. I experienced withdrawals if I was a few hours late taking my daily pill. Wean off SLOWLY and work with your Doctor during the process. I went from 40mg to 2.5mg (cut up 5mg pills). I constantly see commercials from law offices asking, Did you take Paxil while pregnant and your baby was born with a heart defect, lung defect or other serious medical condition..if so call so and so because you may be entitled to financial compensation. If it does horrible things to fetuses what has it been doing to me for the past 14 years??? F 28 14 times
40 1X day
6/24/2010
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Patient History
 1  depression emotional numbing addictive: I had to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect and experienced severe withdrawal systems whenever I tried to stop the drug. F 41 5 years
20 MG 1X day
6/10/2010
 3  Anxiety Upon starting, extreme headaches Upon starting the taper, headaches are common. Found that I had leaky gut or IBS. It took a year on a healing program to really notice a difference. I think healing the gut first and then attempting the taper is important for the success I am having so far. Went from 20mg down to 11.25. Hard to break 10mg tabs into 8 pieces but not letting that stop me. Although Paxil did curb the high anxiety, it held me captive as a zombie w/no expression. And now the taper is far from comfortable. It takes me seven weeks to go from on dosage amount down to the next level. I have headaches for days with no relief, vertigo, blood pressure and blood sugar variances, aches and pains, brain zaps, and anxiety. All these usually go away by the seventh week with residual effects for another three to six weeks or more. F 55 1 years
11.25 1X day
6/2/2010
 1  depression weight gain, hypersexuality, gambling, lieing. suks big coc M 28 5 years
40 1X day
5/21/2010
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 1  panic attacks, obsessive thoughts Lethargy, huge weight gain. Weight loss made impossible due to food cravings. Lack of motivation for physical exercise. No sex drive. Thank God I am Paxil free for the past four months after being on it for 13 years! Last month, I started feeling anger more intense than I have ever felt. I have also had days of crying and sobbing. This has lessened a bit in the past two weeks; I have no illusions that I am not in for more severe reactions. After stopping this horrible, horrible poison, I had terrible brain zaps and panic that I had never dreamed possible. I demanded my psychiatrist help me continue my efforts to get this poison out of my system. He prescribed Prozac which I took instead of Paxil for about two months, tapering down from 40mgs per day to zero. When I had attempted to stop ingesting this legal poison several times during the last 13 years and experienced the intense brain zaps, crying, panic, overwhelming anxiety which I now know are withdrawal symptoms, my psychiatrist dismissed my symptoms as my "illness" returning. He said I should be on Paxil for the rest of my life and to see it the same way as a diabetic needing insulin. Perhaps I was so scared and my brain was so fogged I did not ask a logical question. If my panic attacks, depression and obsessive thoughts for which the medicine was prescribed are to be compared to diabetes, which is determined by measuring blood sugar, why were my seratonin levels never tested? The reason, of course, is that this whole idea of treating people's reactions to the world around them as a disease are wrong and, ultimately cruel and hear F 58 13 years
30mb 1X day
5/18/2010
 2  anxiety I started taking PAXIL to relieve symptoms of anxiety. After three weeks decided to stop as it just amplified the anxiety feelings. I felt extremely nervous, started having strange thoughts such as admitting myself to an institution or just ending it all. I felt much more anxious on PAXIL than without it. I am not saying this is a bad drug, for me it just wasn't the right match. It was a scary experience taking it, as I was so consumed by anxiety that I didn't trust my own feelings anymore. I would recommend you inform the people who care about you that you are taking it so they can keep an eye on you and take action if your behaviour goes haywire. M 38 3 weeks
10 mg 1X day
5/15/2010
 1  Mild anxiety and mild depression I would not wish Paxil withdrawal on anybody. Symptoms included horrible obsessive, intrusive thoughts, severe insomnia, free floating fear, my body feeling horribly agitated and 'on edge' (totally unrelated to any normal anxiety), damaged immune system, brain feeling physically raw as though a layer had been peeled away, extreme black depression never experienced before on this level, paranoia, very limited tolerance to stress, rapid heart beat unrelated to any normal anxiety, weird leg sensations and pain, feelings of agression, panic attacks, etc, etc, etc. I cannot find the words to accurately describe this hell. F 33 45 months
20mg 1X day
5/14/2010
 1  menopause Inability to have an orgasm, emotional blunting, demotivation, sluggishness, passivity Tapered off over a few weeks in October 2004 and have had severe withdrawal syndrome ever since, including 6 months of head zaps, 2 years of tingling pain in shoulders and arms, 3 years of depersonalization and complete anorgasmia, inability to concentrate, sleep problems, exhaustion. After 3.5 years of withdrawal syndrome, I suffered severe anxiety attacks and sleep panic, then completely lost the ability to sleep. I have been mostly disabled by this for the last 2.5 years. Prior to taking Paxil, I never had had an anxiety attack and my sleep and sexual response were normal. I survived because of the support I received on paxilprogress.org, a patient support site for withdrawal from all psychiatric drugs, not just Paxil. F 60 2 years
10 mg 1X day
5/13/2010
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 5  PTSD, GAD, SAD, slight depression complete loss of appetite, lockjaw, nausea, dissiness, fainting I began taking Paxil in 2006 and loved it. I, originally, had no side effects from it and my anxiety was almost completely gone. I had to stop taking it after becoming pregnant with my 2nd child. I began taking it again about 2 1/2 months ago. This time I immediately had lockjaw intensely and within three weeks had lost approx. 10 lbs from lack of appetite. Not good when you are underweight to begin with. So, I adjusted my doses. First to 10 mgs/day then 5 mgs/day. My anxiety is still present but not to the degree it was w/out Paxil, my appetite has returned and the lockjaw has gone away. I do still have an upset stomach most of the time but overall it's an improvement from where I started. It may not be the perfect drug for me, but it's doing ok in the meantime. F 28 15 months
20 1X day
5/11/2010
 3  Anxiety Not able to have an orgasm even though I am in the mood. F 21 6 weeks
20mg 1X day
5/10/2010
 1  PTSD/Depression Helped for about 6 years. Then hit the "poop out" stage. (It DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE!!!!) Had to withdrawel over 1 in a half years. WORST pain, hell, horror, panic attacts/anxiety ever!! Wanted to kill myself. 11 months off, now BETTER!! Live life again! Keep the faith and God will get you through anything!! M 35 8 years
40mg 1X day
5/3/2010
 3  Anxiety No side effects. Worked like a charm while I was taking it. Needed something to ease a bout of anxiety I was going through. Took this med for 3 months until I felt ok enough to wean myself off. Worked great while I was on it, but beware of withdrawal symptoms. Never in my life have I had withdrawals from any meds, but this one is a doozy. Headaches/nausea/vertigo/"out of it" feeling. Do your homework before you quit taking it. I almost want to start taking it again just to get rid of these withdrawal symptoms. F 28 3 months
30 MG 1X day
4/26/2010
 1  Anxiety I blacked out and passed out after taking the second dose. Fell to the floor in a friends living room. Scared everyone and never touched it again. F 45 2 days
15mg 1X day
4/26/2010
 4  Panic Attacks Significant weight gain, insomnia Paxil was amazing in helping my panic attacks. I went from living in and out of an attack all day to none in about 2 weeks. It leveled out my mood and helped me to think clearly again. The downfall was the weight gain and sleepless nights. I gained over 50lbs and was awake every morning at 3am for at least an hour. It made no difference what time of day I took the paxil, I was still awake. I tried 3 different medications to help me sleep and those had no effect whatsoever. I tried numerous ways to lose weight and nothing helped. When I decided to stop taking it,I had horrible withdrawls and ended up back on it a year later. After stopping and restarting twice, it never had the same effect as it did initially and I had to switch to something different. F 33 7 years
20mg 1X day
4/20/2010
 1  Depression Lethargic, wanted to lay in bed at all times. Always tired, but never able to sleep. WORST WITHDRAWALS!!!. After discontinuing.. Brain zaps, blurred vision, insomnia, CRAZY LUCID DREAMS, Felt like I was on acid randomly throughout the day, Suicidal thought,. Tingling, nausea, weight gain. The worst Drug I've ever taken in my life. I wish the doctor never prescribed this to me. I would have rather been depressed then go through what I did with this drug. I was so lethargic all the time. I couldn't get out of bed. After stopping the drug I started to get brain zaps which felt like an electrical current going through my head. I had dreams of people around me dying gruesome deaths. I had dreams I was dying painful deaths. I grew extremely suicidal which I have never encountered I even started to write suicidal letters , Keep in mind this was after the drug. I went completely crazy. I was not myself. I would never recommend anyone to take this. I stopped taking this and now I feel normal again. I have energy and I can enjoy life. F 23 3 months
30mg 1X day
4/19/2010
 1  GRIEF anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia, shaky jitteryness, inner trembling, feelings of doom, intense crying jags, nervousness with no cause, low motivation, This drug and its manufacturers should be abolished!!! Looking back, i should have realised that no pill was going to make the grief go away, and time was the only healer. I have had to endure horrific symptoms from tapering this drug, and have lost the best part of the last 15 yrs of my life. THANKS GSK!!!!! for not revealing the truth about this drug, we have all been stitched up tidy, when u complain to a doctor, they have no idea that its the drug thats causing this, and we are being misdiagnosed and poly drugged with other poisonss. Not me!!!! i now know thqat a lot o mental illness today is caused by the drugs we take,which are meant to cure the very symptoms we all complain about in w/d. What a complete travesty, we had it with the thalidomide drug in the 60,S, the benzos in the 8O'S how long is it going to take before the public wise up. Obviously gsk's only concern is raking in billions and billions $$$$ from there super poisons thaT ARE WRECKIONG PEOPLE'S LIVES. cheers, what a trade off eh, I FOR ONE HAVE BEEN CONNED AND MADE VERY ILL, AND god ONLY KNOWS HOW LONG ITS GOING TO LAST. F 51 14 years
30MG 1X day
4/16/2010
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Patient History
 1  depression M 48 6 weeks
1X day
4/15/2010

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