Published Jul 7, 2014
crrogers22
1 Post
Hello, everybody. I have just started prescribing and was wondering if anybody here could lend me a hand...
I am trying to locate an SSRI Dose Equivalency Chart. For example, if I were going to take someone off of Celexa and start them on Fluoxetine, what the equivalent doses of the two would be. I have purchased Epocrates online but there is no table like this contained in the app.
Thanks in advance!!
Whispera, MSN, RN
3,458 Posts
PG2018
1,413 Posts
We use tables like that for such things as proton pump inhibitors and statins, but SSRIs aren't what I would deem mutually equivalent. There are reasons one is picked over the other. Psychotropics are like shoes. You just try one until it works.
I really recommend Stahl's Essentials of Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific basis and practical applications. It's a wonderful book that I think will explain the questions you have but aren't yet aware of. It even has pictures.
I like Stahl's too. I use it every day I work. It includes weaning strategies for patients who must be weaned as well as how to lower the dosage of one drug while starting and raising the dosage of another drug.
Definitely, one SSRI isn't equivalent to another in lots of ways. However, when switching from one to another it's helpful to know drug A of dosage 2 is close to being not-too-high-or-too-low-a-dose to drug T of dosage 7.