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Signs and Symptoms of serotonin Syndrome(wiki)

Symptom onset is usually rapid, often occurring within minutes. Serotonin syndrome encompasses a wide range of clinical findings. Mild symptoms may only consist of increased heart rate, shivering, sweating, dilated pupils, myoclonus (intermittent tremor or twitching), as well as overresponsive reflexes.[1] Moderate intoxication includes additional abnormalities such as hyperactive bowel sounds, high blood pressure and hyperthermia; a temperature as high as 40 °C (104 °F) is common in moderate intoxication. The overactive reflexes and clonus in moderate cases may be greater in the lower limbs than in the upper limbs. Mental status changes include hypervigilance and agitation.[1] Severe symptoms include severe increases in heart rate and blood pressure that may lead to shock. Temperature may rise to above 41.1 °C (106.0 °F) in life-threatening cases. Other abnormalities include metabolic acidosis, rhabdomyolysis, seizures, renal failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulation; these effects usually arise as a consequence of hyperthermia.[1][3]

The symptoms are often described as a clinical triad of abnormalities:[1][5]

    * Cognitive effects: headache, agitation, hypomania, mental confusion, hallucinations, coma
    * Autonomic effects: shivering, sweating, hyperthermia, hypertension, tachycardia, nausea, diarrhea.
    * Somatic effects: myoclonus (muscle twitching), hyperreflexia (manifested by clonus), tremor.

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some herbs that i discovered that contain maoi's are st johns wort, passion flower, yohimbe, tribulus, golden root, licorice root, kava kava, nutmeg and goldthread... there may be more but that was all i was able to find... i guess if you become interested in using something do a google search on it and maoi's or if they interact with ssri's... like i said, there is a good chance there are many others... i found no other herbs that did not contain maoi's with contraindications with ssri's, but that doesn't mean they're out there...

you could use teas like chamomile or lemon balm to relax you...

one of the first things my first OM doctor did was reduce my paxil from 60mg to 20mg the first visit... among other things she instructed me to begin using milk thistle, dandelion root and siberian ginseng... i had no problems with them at all... when i met the second OM doctor he instructed me to use bladderwrack, ashwagandha root, guggul moss... i have no problems using them either but shortly after meeting him i was off paxil completely...

i put a call into my doctor this morning to learn more about why she placed me on 5-HTP while on paxil... i was just curious... hopefully she'll call me today...

Kensho