Posted by Scott L. Schofield on March 11, 2000, at 22:45:34
In reply to Effexor + Paxil, posted by Ray on March 10, 2000, at 15:28:24
> In 1995 I started taking paxil for depression & anxiety. After a year The Paxil was working well except I could not stay awake. So I switched to Effexor and that seemed to work well, but not as well as the Paxil. I have stayed with the Effexor because I don't feel as sleepy as I did with the Paxil. However now I have trouble staying asleep. My question is does anyone have any experience with taking Effexor during the day and Paxil in the evening. Recently I have read alot about augmentation, however I haven't seen this combo talked about
>
> Thanks for any feedback
> Ray
I think you may want to explore other alternatives for dealing with the changes in sleep other than combining these two antidepressants. If Paxil was so helpful, you may consider adding Wellbutrin, Ritalin, or some other alerting drug to conteract the somnolence (fancy word for sleepiness). Such an addition might also help to prevent the "SSRI poop-out" sometimes seen when using Paxil-like drugs, in which the antidepressant response begins to fade with the passage of time. As a side benefit, these drugs can also help minimize the sexual side effects that often accompany the use of SSRIs.As far as Effexor is concerned, it might be interesting to increase the dosage. It may foster a greater improvement of your depression, and possibly normalize sleep at the same time. Sometimes, sleep disturbances are primary symptoms of depression, and may resolve upon the successful treatment of the depression itself. If the depression gets better and the sleep gets worse, it may be necessary to add some sort of sleep aid.
Good luck.
- Scott
poster:Scott L. Schofield
thread:26647
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000302/msgs/26739.html