In December of this year, I am going to slowly wean off of paxil, and move to 5htp. I went on paxil for mainly anxiety, which it completely took care of, and I've read tons of success stories on 5htp. My question is, what are peoples experiences and thoughts with 5htp or moving to it from an antidepressant?
2007-10-09 09:08:04 · 1 answers · asked by movin2thabeeet 1 in Health ➔ Mental Health
My "off the top of the head" thought on 5-hydroxy tryptophan (5htp) as a replacement for paroxetine (paxil) for depression is that it is no better. It is a "health food over the counter" supplement and has not been shown in scientific studies to improve depressive conditions. You can bet if there were any advantage in the use of 5htp over paxil the pharmaceutical industry would have seized on it and made it a prescription medication so they could profit from it.
Paroxetine is an SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor) and has had much success but some detrimental lawsuits filed because of alleged bad effects from it. These lawsuits may be just opportunistic. The fact that you say it (paxil) completely controlled your anxiety problems makes me wonder why you want to change.
Go to "5htp" and "paxil" in Yahoo! web searches to find out more details on these chemicals. Wikipedia has good summaries.
Good luck with your anxiety/depression, good mental health, peace and love!
2007-10-09 15:32:17 · answer #1 · answered by Mad Mac 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋