so i was on prozac for a year, but have been off for 8 months (i tried some other meds in between without much luck). lately ive been feeling down again although its pretty sporadic.

i still have some leftover pills from when i stopped. i was taking 40mg when i was on it, and my question is if i pop 40 on a day im feeling bad, will it have any effect at all in terms of making me feel better?

i would just pop 40mg and see, but my doctor used to say that if you dont go up slowly it can really fuck you up. i think he was just trying to scare me because i would always ask him to up the dose quicker than he wanted. is there any risk in just going 40 one day when i havent done it in so long? (ive heard of seratonin syndrome, but that would have to be a much higher dose right?) thanks

From what I understand, Prozac has to build up to a constant level in your system in order for it to work. It takes a week or two to start taking full effect. It would probably take little/no effect in one high dose.

This.

And no, your doctor wasn't trying to "scare you". Jumping up SSRI doses quickly can definitely have some serious adverse effects. See: Serotonin syndrome.

Most people start at around 20 mg with Prozac, with adjustments made as needed. Typical maximum is around 80 mg/day, though I'm sure there could be a few exceptions to that in regards to an even higher doses for special individual circumstances.

Also, Prozac is one of the absolute worst anti-depressants there is, IMO. I wouldn't advise anyone to attempt to self-medicate with it; actually, I wouldn't advise anyone to attempt to self-medicate with any SSRI, come to think of it...