How long will it take for prozac to reach it's maximum therapeutic effect for a severely depressed female?

Question

82 year old caucasian female in good physical health

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

male or female it doesn't matter Prozac is a controlled substance that only a doctor can give the prescription too.It varies of a few factors here not just how long.....email me I'll tell you

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Asker's Comment:

thank you Robin :o)

Answer 2

I'm sorry but antidepressents aren't the answer. Prozac has never actually been proven to work any better than a plecebo. I've read all about this stuff, all about how the companies try to hide the true date of the studies. It's all about money and it really hurts me to see that these companies are praying on the weaknesses of others. I used to be on prozac and a couple of others.. they did nothing. I'm past that now and am doing fine but honestly I don't know what the answer is but it sure isn't those drugs. They can have awful side effects.

Answer 3

This medication takes around 3-5 weeks to get into the system to actually see a change....don't stop taking meds, talk to your doctor.
It takes awhile, try to be patient

Answer 4

Apparently Prozac takes longer than any of the other SSRI antidepressants to take effect, so be patient. Usually four to six weeks, though, apparently.

In terms of personal experience, I'm male, and it took a whole TEN weeks or so before I actually "noticed" a difference. But even then it was very subtle. The change happens gradually; little by little, bit by bit, you start to acknowledge the fact that you're actually "doing ok".

It's only when you look back honestly at how you felt before you started that you realize how much prozac has helped you. This is why, cheesy though it may sound, it helps to keep a journal, or a rating for your mood on a scale of one to ten for each day.

I *blush* have a whole Excel spreadsheet calendar rating my mood, which gradually went from a "three" at the outset, to maybe a "two" when I was "coming up" on the medication (side effects can be tedious and make you very pessimistic, as I'm sure you've heard), to an "eight" of late. Eight is probably a bit generous, but when I started I was stingy with my scores, and now I feel like being generous. Which says quite a lot don't you think?

Oh, and to give you an idea of how my system works, to reach a nine, it would definitely take something "external" (like a lottery win, or, to be less materialistic, finding nirvana through transcendental meditation or something); and to reach a ten would probably require substances way, way stronger than prozac, which would inevitably result in a hideous what-goes-up-must-come-crashing-down scenario, so let's not go there.

Anyway, have tried to be as frank as possible, and hope that helps. Straight from the horse's mouth!

Check out crazymeds.org. It's a fantastically helpgul website if you're trying these things for the first time.

Source(s):

The Crazy Meds website.