WLS and antidepressants

Does anyone have any experience with taking antidepressants after surgery? I am waiting to be scheduled for RNY and wondered if my dosages would need to be changed. How can you figure out if they will be absorbed differently (and need to raise the doses w/o waiting until I get depressed)? The surgeon was concerned by the number of antidepressants I was on, but this is the only combination that has consistently worked for me after years of failed attempts. Are any of you still on a number of meds after surgery and do you have trouble taking all of them?

I took 150 mg of effexor b4 my surgery and after long bouts of vertigo and couldn't figure out why it was happening...my doctor lowered my prescription to 50 mg and that works fine for me. I also take another 200mg of trazadone at night to sleep and that seems to work out fine too. I hope this helps.

I take effexor XR 150mg and I have had no problems at all! I know for at least for a week you have to take the pill apart and take it like that but after that you are good to swallow the pill!!! I only have a problem with taking a multivitamin so I am doing chewables!!! If you need anything else let me know!

Hi Lisabeth, did you decide to have surgery in NH? I have been on Prozac 80 mg about 3 months before surgery. I had to stop taking them the week of surgery. However, once I was home I could continue up with them in whole. I've hade no problems what-so-ever. I had RNY. Let us know how surgery goes. Susan Dupre

I am on Prozac and Wellbutrin. I never stopped taking them...just had to get a different version of the wellbutrin and cru**** and swallow the granules of the prozac capsules...YUCK !!!

Prozac makes a liquid form, but I can't attest to it's taste. Any SR or XR form of an anti-depressant can't be cut or split, so if you ask the doc ahead of time and maybe try out the liquids you should be okay.

Hi Lisbeth - When I had my surgery I was taking 300mg of effexor XR every day for anxiety. I had to switch to regular effexor for a couple months and crush them and then later, cut them up. A couple months after surgery I started weaning off altogether. I was off for a couple months and started getting really depressed, and then the anxiety came back too. I got put back on effexor XR about 6 weeks ago, at 75mg a day. My pdoc said I could start there, and then up myself by 75mg a day over the course of a couple of weeks until I got to 225mg a day. If I wasn't feeling in good control then I had to so see him again. He said weight loss can affect the way the drugs are metabolized and I may need much less than I did before. Sure enough, I'm doing great on just the 75mg and I have no plans to increase the dose. I am also now taking 100mg of Wellbutrin, which I started for the depression way back before the anxiety came back. Hope this helps! Good luck to you. Mary Ellen