Prozac For Hot Flashes

[purezero]

My mom is kind of at the beginning of her menopause thing. It's been a year or something now I think. Anyway, so she's been getting hot flashes, and the doctor suggested prescribing her Prozac in low dosages to take care of it, or at least lessen the effects of it. She's worried about going on Prozac because she's read that it makes you have suicidal thoughts or look at the world in a very different way. She's also concerned about getting too dependent on it.

So are there any other alternatives to this? She says there isn't. But I'm not too sure about that.

[shy]

suicidal thoughts? but i thought it was meant to make a person very happy? hmm... i don't know then.

[deez nuts]

tell your mom not to opt for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) it's not a common practice anymore and recent studies have show that it increases your chances of endocervical adenocarcinoma aka cervic cancer.

other prescription meds alternatives are: low doses of prozac, paxcil, effexor and neurontin.

non prescription alternatives involve finding a trigger that causes these hot flashes like stress, types of food etc etc and minimizing/eliminating it.

i hear soy is a viable alternative cuz they contain phytoestrogens but don't take the pill or powder form just increase it in your diet naturally like drinking more soy milk etc etc. the research isn't conclusive on any long term effects on both benefit and risk though.

and tell have her physician monitor her bone density for osteoporosis.

[kimpossible]

Have you looked into 'alternative' medicine? I'm all about the Western industrial medicine first and foremost but there are times when you might want to look into finding either a naturopath or Chinese medicine. I'm kind of in a similar situation. My husband has chronic Hepatitus B but is a healthy carrier. The only available treatment is interferon which has major depression as a side effect. Since he's in good health and doesn't need to take the interferon at this point (it has a very low success rate, like 30%) we're exploring other routes. There are some herbs that support a natural lower-dose production of interferon. It takes a lot of dedication to go the herb route however, long hours of brewing medicines on a daily basis. But when the alternative has serious side effects and the situation isn't immediately life threatening it's sometimes the best Plan A solution.

I would ask her to check her health plan. It may have an allowance for 'alternative' medicine.

[YuheiCarreau]

suicidal thoughts? but i thought it was meant to make a person very happy? hmm... i don't know then.

Prozac is a stabilizer. It's not supposed to make you happy... More like it smoothes out the rough parts. A lot of people take it because they like that feeling of being totally calm all the time, but that's their personal preference, not the drug causing them pleasure.

[Tao]

Have you looked into 'alternative' medicine? I'm all about the Western industrial medicine first and foremost but there are times when you might want to look into finding either a naturopath or Chinese medicine. I'm kind of in a similar situation. My husband has chronic Hepatitus B but is a healthy carrier. The only available treatment is interferon which has major depression as a side effect. Since he's in good health and doesn't need to take the interferon at this point (it has a very low success rate, like 30%) we're exploring other routes. There are some herbs that support a natural lower-dose production of interferon. It takes a lot of dedication to go the herb route however, long hours of brewing medicines on a daily basis. But when the alternative has serious side effects and the situation isn't immediately life threatening it's sometimes the best Plan A solution.

I would ask her to check her health plan. It may have an allowance for 'alternative' medicine.
Interesting, I didn't know interferon caused depression. What kind of interferon did they give him? I ask cause I did my intel project on a protein in the regulatory pathway of interferon gamma and alpha. In mice interferon worked great in subduing tuberculosis. I don't think they were depressed though....:huh:

[deez nuts]

they usually take an antiviral medication such as ribavirin or copegus which is a tablet along with an injectable alpha interferon (injected 3 times a week) or a pegylated alpha interferon such pegasys (injected one time a week).

alpha interferons are known to worsen already existent mental problems such as depression and suicidal tendencies.

i had a transvenous liver biopsy case and a laparoscopic liver biopsy case yesterday so all this shit is fresh in my mind.

[ChinaLama]

Oh I don't know about that. You see, I've taken it and I did feel real strange. I don't know. It made me feel more like a person suffering from what pshychiatrists label multiple personality disorder, or known more commonly to laymen as schizophrenia.

how you doin', sybil?