Posted by bob on April 20, 2000, at 0:03:08
In reply to Re: Meds advice: Lithium + Nortriptyline, posted by Scott L. Schofield on April 18, 2000, at 20:56:39
Geez! Sorry kiwi -- I can't believe I missed this post (and thanks to Scott for chiming in).
I've been on nortrip for quite some time and, like Scott said, it's the only TCA with a well-defined therapeutic window. You should definitely get a blood test done to see if you're hitting that window.
I've been at 150mg/day of nortrip and it has worked well for me, but needs augmentation. I'm also on 1mg of clonazepam for panic disorder ... sounds familiar, perhaps?
While on zoloft, my pdoc had me try lithium to augment that med -- I couldn't tolerate more than 450mg/day on it ... it really stirred up my nerves! Maybe folks out there who are more familiar with mood stabilizers can say something about the side effect profiles of lithium versus neurontin or whatever else there is out there. I'm just curious about it, because you didn't say what you're taking the clonazepam for. Perhaps its not so much the nortriptyline level but the lithium level that's causing the agitation, and maybe a different mood stabilizer would be better ... just tossing out an idea.
As for what nortrip can do to you long term -- it was a minor concern of my gp's wrt cardiac function. Every four months or so he does an ekg to check out how the ticker's working, but he hasn't seen a single thing in over a year to concern him one bit.
good luck!
bob[ps. I just switched today from nortrip to desipramine ... it's supposed to work for OCD/anxiety as well as for depression (if you can believe what it says on those drug store info sheets -- hey Cam! where do the chains get the data for those sheets anyway?) ... my pdoc and I are also hoping that it's a little less sedating.]
poster:bob
thread:29938
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30643.html