About B. Todd Troost, MD Expertise vertigo, benign positional vertigo, BPPV, and related ailments.
Experience
Past/Present clients More than 2000 patients with vertigo.
Chairman of Neurology Department for 18 years and examiner for American Board of Neurology for over 25 years. Extensive information is provided on my commericial free website at www.ivertigo.net
Expert: B. Todd Troost, MD Date: 3/3/2003 Subject: vertigo
Question I have been taking 100mg of Zoloft for 10 years. I want to stop taking it, but ever time I reduce the dose, I get vertigo. The more I reduce the dose, the worse the vertigo. Under the supervision of my doctor, I am reducing the dose very slowly. But even slowly, the withdrawal symtoms can be extremely troubling (nausea and disorientation). Do you know of anyting that might ease the discomfort of these symptoms? (My reaction to SSRI withdrawal is not anomalous; in particular, Paxil has caused severe withdrawal reactions in some people, according to "Prozac Backlash"; I mention this because there is a tendency to think that withdrawal symptoms from SSRIs are necessarily the reemergence of an underlying condition . But I have never suffered from vertigo in my life and vertigo is not associated with clinical depression.I guess I feel I have to make the argument because the SSRI makers are so adamant that SSRIs do not cause dependency.)
Answer Dear Christie:
Unfortunately vertigo or some type of dizziness is a common complaint when a patient is trying to wirhdraw from an SSRI, particularly Effexor. There is no additional medicaiton that seems to make things better in my experience. The main answer is to reduce very very slowly over months ... this lessens the symptoms.
