Suggest Treatment For Severe Anxiety, Diarrhea And Loss Of Appetite

Posted on Tue, 5 Jan 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 5 Jan 2016 Answered on

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : How long should I give this new medication (Brintellix) to "kick in" before giving up and going on to something else? I've been on it for 2 weeks (titrated up to 10mg this past week) and seem to be getting worse, not better. More anxiety, excessive crying, extreme social anxiety/phobia, relentless worrying, nausea, complete loss of appetite. I just don't think this is the right med for me given my past experiences with what works and what doesn't. Doc wants me to give it another month, but at this point, I cannot function on a daily basis. What would you do?

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (35 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Change the drug.

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.
I understand your concerns.

In my opinion, two weeks is enough time time for an antidepressant to show its effect.

Sometimes, we have to wait for 4 weeks for a drug to show its full effect. These are those cases where drug starts to show at least some effects in the initial two weeks.

But your symptoms are getting worse with the drug. In such case, a two-week trial is enough and I would recommend a change of drug.

Kindly talk to your about this and consider a change of drug.

Hope this helps.
Feel free to ask further for more doubts.
Thanks.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar