Is busiprone similar to prozac as far as timing to take effect?

Answer 1

Officially, yes. But in my experience as a prescribing physician, buspirone can work much faster. It sounds like you are being treated for generalized anxiety disorder or anxiety-depression. Either way, this is a reasonable and cost effective approach that your doctor has chosen. Stick with it for at least a month before coming to any negative conclusions.

Buspirone, generic for Buspar, reportedly takes up to two weeks to take effect:

From http://www.medicinenet.com/buspirone/article.htm

"DOSING: Unlike antianxiety medications of the benzodiazepine class which are effective after a single dose, effectiveness with buspirone may require two or more weeks of treatment"

As I indicated, in my experience as a prescribing physician and as someone who has used the medication, it can have a sedating benefit with the first dose.

Prozac (generic fluoxetine) takes from a week to a month or more to take effect, although many patients report that they feel benefit sooner than that. Again, this conflicts with official reports that it takes two weeks or longer to be felt.

From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=10964858&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google

"These data suggest that more than half of eventual responders to fluoxetine treatment at 8 weeks start to respond by week 2; over 75% start to respond by week 4."