Minutus

Dear Joy and Elizabeth and other colleagues

Thank you for your comments.

I have asked the patient to discuss the matter with her GP and seek his
approval for reduction of the dose.
In my opinion a lot of her symptoms, Headaches, insomnia, gait is down to
Prozac. The GP had wanted her to double the dose and she has resisted so
far.

Luckily she is on a liquid dose so we can carefully measure the amount using
a syringe.
With tablets the recommendation from Sheilagh Creasy was that using a
specially purchased (and kept for the purpose) metal nail file, the tablets
are then progressively scrapped. So first tablet is scrapped once and the
second twice and so on. This way the level of the allopathic medication is
reduced ever so slowly.

The SoH code of ethics is also clear that the decision to alter the
medication rests with the prescriber and of course the patient.

But really what I wanted is what Joy touched on her second paragraph - and
that is the kind of symptoms that may develop due to this process.

So more on this please.

Rgds
Soroush
Message: 24
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 13:45:26 +0000
From: Joy Lucas
Subject: Re: PROZAC

Dear Soroush, my approach is a very very slow one, can take many months
depending on the case, but always backed up by continuing homeopathic
treatment. The complete co-operation of the client is required for the
procedure to work and they usually have to be encouraged or allowed to make
frequent contact with you, so if you are away on holiday for example you
should make another homeopath available for them. Simply, I ask them the
begin by breaking up the tablets or capsules and using gradually less and
less. The dose might be reduced by minute amounts but it really is the only
safe way, imho, to do this with dependency drugs of this nature.

Secondly it is important to acquaint yourself with as much knowledge about
the drug as possible - Prozac affects the liver as well as other organs so
you need to be on the look out for sx pertaining to the use of this drug and
its withdrawal (which might be separate from the rest of the case, i.e. the
reason the person is on it in the first place) - a google search will give
plenty of sites for this (apologies as I don't have the material to hand).

Thirdly, whichever Society or Alliance of homeopaths you belong to should
have written information about drug withdrawal in their Code of Ethics.
You might want to get hold of material that Felicity Lee has written about
drug withdrawal - the SoH will give you details.

Hope useful, best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Soroush, I have had clients with extreme insomnia, aggravated anxiety
(the main reason for coming off), haemorrhages due to liver disorders,
debilitating headaches, fevers which come and go, and severe asthma but the
list is endless and will depend on the individual case.

I am sure your case taking is thorough but you will need to extrapolate the
prozac sx from the case and this isn't always easy as the client cannot
always be clear about what is happening to them under the effects of the
drug.

Coming off the drug can sometimes make the sx worse - by this I don't mean a
return to the original state for requiring the drug in the first place (as
that is the intention so to speak), but more an aggravation of the sx caused
by the drug - e.g. headaches became even more severe which were cured by
another homeopathic rx and likewise with asthma and excessive perspiration.
I haven't seen other aggravations but I imagine they could be possible.
Again this is why it is so important to isolate the specific sx of the side
effects of the Prozac.

If the GP is wanting to double the dose I think you can guess what the
reaction will be to the request for reducing!! But the brave hearted should
inform the client's GP what the intention is (covering your tracks and all
that).

I like the idea of scraping tablets by the way.

This might help

http://www.mentalhealth.com/drug/p30-p05.html#Head_4

Best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
on 1/6/04 3:37 PM, Finrod at finrod@webstar.co.uk wrote:

Dear Joy and Elizabeth and other colleagues

Thank you for your comments.

I have asked the patient to discuss the matter with her GP and seek his
approval for reduction of the dose.
In my opinion a lot of her symptoms, Headaches, insomnia, gait is down to
Prozac. The GP had wanted her to double the dose and she has resisted so
far.

Luckily she is on a liquid dose so we can carefully measure the amount using
a syringe.
With tablets the recommendation from Sheilagh Creasy was that using a
specially purchased (and kept for the purpose) metal nail file, the tablets
are then progressively scrapped. So first tablet is scrapped once and the
second twice and so on. This way the level of the allopathic medication is
reduced ever so slowly.

The SoH code of ethics is also clear that the decision to alter the
medication rests with the prescriber and of course the patient.

But really what I wanted is what Joy touched on her second paragraph - and
that is the kind of symptoms that may develop due to this process.

So more on this please.

Rgds
Soroush
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]