Q. I have been taking Prozac and it has been very helpful for a number of years. Lately the drug seems to be losing it's effectiveness. I've read about 5-HTP being helpful for some and asked my psychiatrist if I could try this He said alone its not effective but that I could combine it with a lower Prozac dose. I'm wondering if this is safe. Can it cause serotonin syndrome or other problems?

A. It can cause serotonin syndrome, but it is unlikely this will happen unless you took a large amount of 5-HTP. The 5-HTP is so expensive, it would probably be cheaper to just increase your Prozac.