Patient/caregiver was educated on precautions to be exercised while taking doxepin as follows:
- Notify your doctor of any unresolved and worsening anxiety and depressive symptoms or continuing unpleasant side-effects, so that, your dosage on the medication could be revised.
- Doxepin use in mothers can also increase risk for complications in breastfed newborns, as the drug passes into the breast milk. Breastfed newborns of mothers taking doxepin can present with respiratory complications and breathing difficulty. So, doxepin is best avoided for an alternative drug in women breastfeeding the newborn.
- Blood work, labs for liver and kidney function could be periodically ordered while taking doxepin. Observe compliance with all physician visits and periodical lab draws ordered, for an update on improvement/deterioration with symptoms of mood disorder and side-effects developed. This will also allow your physician to make appropriate changes in your plan of care, as needed.
- If you miss a dose, try taking it at the earliest notice of noncompliance. If it is time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and take the dose scheduled. Do not take an extra dose to try making up for the missed dose, as it can lead to toxicity. Notify your doctor and other health care personnel regarding your dose noncompliance.
