Serotonin Syndrome risk with Paxil?

[loveandfireworks]

I have been struggling with anxiety for many years. However, over the past year and a half it has progressively gotten worse. I have been to numerous counselors over this time and nothing has seemed to help. However, now I am at a place where there is both a psychologist and a psychiatrist, which seems to be helping me. My old family doctor started me on Paxil 20 mg 4 months ago, after undergoing many medical tests to rule out any other factors/causes for my physical symptoms. Unfortunately, the Paxil was not helping any of my anxiety and the doctor failed to explain Paxil. This left me to research it on my own and concluded that I could not combine Paxil with anything else and listed several common medicines or pain relievers that can cause serious or life-threatening side effects when taken with Paxil.

When I spoke with the psychiatrist 2 weeks ago, he said he thinks we should start increasing the Paxil since 20 mg is the starting dose, and increased my dose to 30 mg. Well, when I filled my prescription this nice little paper was inside the bag that discussed the risks and unfortunately I decided to read it. It mentioned something called Serotonin Syndrome, which I had never seen mentioned on any of the prescription info packets when I had my Paxil refilled previously. Now I am a little concerned that the increase dose will cause Serotonin Syndrome or if I take any other over the counter pain relievers or cough medicine I will get this syndrome. I know I had asked my psychiatrist about taking Advil or Tylenol with the Paxil if I have a headache and he said it would be fine as long as I am taking the recommended dose it will not cause any crazy effects or kill me. Also, I do drink socially and he said that having a couple of drinks over the course of a night will be okay too with the Paxil. So while I am better informed about Paxil, I still have my concerns. I didn't ask him about the cough medicine or any other kind of sinus or cold medicine because I was not thinking about it at the time; however, I don't want to call him and sound like a complete nutcase. Any input about the syndrome or taking certain otc meds with Paxil??

[alankay]

Love, I never had any trace of Serotonin Syndrome and have been on several SSRI's. I doubt you'll get even close to that on 30mgs of paxil. Anxious folks likely have low serotonin and you likely won't ever get that syndrome....ever.
You can have a few drinks on paxil just pay attention as you might get sleepy more so than before and maybe not. I never noticed much and have a few beers on weekends but I do just pay attention to how I'm feeling when starting a different SSRI.
Keep on the paxil and don't worry about the stories. Even at a higher dose you should be fine just remember if you need/want to stop it or switch, do so gradually. The doc will know all about that. I think you are on the right track with raising to paxil dose. PM me any time. Alankay.

[ghall89]

I agree with the above poster. I was on Paxil for 2 years and all I can say is just be aware. I personally just played it safe and didn't drink, or take anything like Tylenol unless I absolutely had to. But that may have been a bit extreme. Honestly though, my doctor was the one who told me to be careful, but I never saw anything about serotonin anywhere when I got my prescription, and i read those thing 10x over to make sure I don't miss anything.