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US Brand Names: Luvox

Class: Anti-Obsessive, probably because it's really the first SSRI.
Read up on these sections if you haven't done so already, because they cover a lot of information about multiple medications that I'm not going to repeat on many pages.  I'm just autistic that way about not repeating myself.

FDA Approved Use: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Off-Label Uses: Depression, Panic/Anxiety, Bipolar Depression, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Eating Disorders - two studies, one big  and one small indicate that SSRIs just aren't much good for eating disorders, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, PTSD

Luvox's (fluvoxamine's)pros and cons:

Pros: Proven as the best med for OCD.  Generally less agitating than other SSRIs.  Tends to work faster than other SSRIs except Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate).

Cons: Who the hell prescribes Luvox? There's just not much in the way of support from Solvay or anecdotal evidence about this drug.  The lack of support is telling in Solvay's withdrawing the brand name med from the US market.  The short half-life can make discontinuation difficult.

Luvox's (fluvoxamine's)Typical Side Effects: The usual for SSRIs - headache, nausea, dry mouth, sweating, sleepiness or insomnia, and diarrhea or constipation, weight gain, loss of libido. Most everything but the weight gain and loss of libido usually goes away within a couple of weeks.

For tips on how to cope with these side effects, please see our side effects page.

Luvox's (fluvoxamine's)Not So Common Side Effects: Worsening of symptoms, be it anxiety, depression or OCD. Even if you're taking Luvox for one thing you might get the symptoms of something else.

For all side effects read the PI sheet  Hell, read all of them below and really indulge your cyberchondria.

Interesting Stuff your Doctor Probably Won't Tell you about luvox's (fluvoxamine): First of all, if you smoke you'll increase the metabolism of Luvox (fluvoxamine) by 25%.   That's out of the PI sheet, and a recent study confirms it.  So you'll get less out of it and it'll make discontinuation easier. Somehow that's ironic for a med that is officially approved only for OCD, as nicotine is an effective treatment for OCD.  No, really, nicotine reduces OCD and various anxiety symptoms. As usual doctors recommend patches and gum, I prefer cigars and pipe tobacco.  Who knows what would happen with Luvox (fluvoxamine), given how nicotine makes you clear Luvox (fluvoxamine) out of your system faster.  Synergistic effect or just a wash?

Secondly mixing Luvox (fluvoxamine) and benzodiazepines can be really tricky. With some, like Ativan (lorazepam), there's no problem at all. But with others, like Xanax (alprazolam) and Valium (diazepam), you wind up making either or both meds work much, much better. Surprise! But you don't know how much better, or how worse the side effects could be, and it can vary from day to day, especially with Valium, so it's not a good idea. This is spelled out in the PI sheet, but double check with your doctor and pharmacist.

Finally, and this is news to me, mixing caffeine and Luvox (fluvoxamine) can be intensely unpleasant. The first study back in 1996 states, "The results indicate that intake of caffeine during fluvoxamine treatment may lead to caffeine intoxication."  Your one cup of joe will suddenly become like five cups, and the effects will last six times as long.  These effects have been confirmed by subsequent studies, including one that shows these effects with just 10mg of fluvoxamine.  Don't mix coffee and Luvox (fluvoxamine)!  Thanks to one this site's readers for e-mailing the first study to me.

Luvox's (fluvoxamine's) Dosage and How to Take Luvox (fluvoxamine): Initial dose is 50 mg at bedtime, increased by 50 mg a day every four to seven days as needed until the maximum dose of 300 mg a day is reached. Like any SSRI I recommend starting out with 25mg and then increasing to 50mg after a week. If you don't feel anything go up to 100mg, but stay there until you've given it a try for a month, otherwise it'll just be a pain in the ass to stop it. Even at 100mg you'll know after a month if Luvox (fluvoxamine) is going to do something for you.

Days to Reach a Steady State: The steady state for Luvox (fluvoxamine) is non-linear. That means if you change the dosage, the steady state gets hosed. So Solvay doesn't publish any steady state data. Figure at least a week, maybe two, after your last dosage adjustment.

When you're fully saturated with the medication and less prone to peaks and valleys of effects. You still might have peaks of effect after taking many meds, but with a lot of the meds you'll have fewer valleys after this point. In theory anyway.

How Long Luvox (fluvoxamine) Takes to Work: Like all SSRIs anywhere from a couple days to over a month. If you don't feel any positive benefit after six weeks, then you should talk to your doctor about either another SSRI or trying a med that hits another neurotransmitter.  However in all the studies referenced above, Luvox (fluvoxamine) tends to work faster than most SSRIs.  Keep in mind, according to this large and most recent analysis, most modern antidepressants work on only the most severe cases of depression (if that's what you're taking Luvox (fluvoxamine) for).  So don't use it for just feeling crappy.

Luvox's (fluvoxamine) Half-Life & Average Time for Luvox (fluvoxamine) to Clear Out of Your System: With a half-life of 15.6 hours, the shortest of all true SSRIs, Luvox (fluvoxamine) is out of your body in about 80 hours.

How Luvox (fluvoxamine) Works In Your Brain:  Like all SSRIs Luvox (fluvoxamine) doesn't make you produce more serotonin, rather it makes your neurons soak for a longer period of time in the serotonin you already produce.  Serotonin is one of the big three neurotransmitters responsible for depression, along with norepinephrine and dopamine.  My wild-ass guess / rule of thumb is that imbalances of one or more of the three are responsible for 80% of the depression issues, with serotonin being a key factor in anxiety.  It's all just a matter of figuring out exactly the extent of the tweaking and what neurotransmitters you exactly need to tweak.

Other Brand Names / Foreign / Overseas Availability:    Anwu (Taiwan)
Dumirox (Korea, Spain, Uruguay)
Dumyrox (Greece, Portugal)
Faverin (Israel, Australia, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey)
Favoxil (Israel)
Fevarin (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Turkey)
Floxyfral (Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland)
Fluvohexal (Germany)
Fluvoxin (India)
Lote (Taiwan)
Luvox (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Taiwan, Venezuela)
Movox (Australia)
Voxamin (Colombia)
 

As of 03/11/2008. Full retail for the uninsured. Go ahead and gloat, citizens of civilized countries and all of you with full medical coverage.

Sample Canadian Cost: $207 for 90 100mg tablets of brand-name Luvox, $138 for 100 100mg of generic fluvoxamine.

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Luvox in the News

Depression in the News

OCD in the News

Take care, and keep taking your crazy meds!

If you still have unanswered questions about this or other medications, including which one is, or combination of meds are the best for you, your best bet is to ask on Crazy Meds Talk.  Better yet, if you want to let the world know how they worked out for you and want to help out others in their quest for the correct meds, join the party.
If you  want to discuss your issues, I suggest checking out one of the various support groups online.  
Otherwise, if you're letting me know about how much you like or hate the site, or  need to let me know about medication effects in private, then just drop a note to jerod23 at gmail dot com  Honestly, I usually don't have a lot of time to answer e-mail these days. 
Another problem is that you may not get a response even if I wanted to send you one.  You see, so many dickweeds with malicious intents and too much time on their hands have appropriated the crazymeds.org domain name to use for their spam, viruses and the like.  Subsequently some lazy-ass e-mail protection software authors just go by the domain name, and not the IP address.  So I've been blacklisted because of the actions of others.  Or the software just doesn't like the domain name because of the "crazy" and/or "meds."  Or your question about a particular medication will set off spam flags.  So the e-mail just wouldn't go through regardless.  Sorry.

Hey, did you find this page all by itself through Google or some other search engine? Great! But to really appreciate the entire site, you need to start here.

Created Saturday, November 08,2003

Last updated Saturday, May 15, 2010