Posted by michael on September 26, 2000, at 18:54:26
This is pretty long... first the background...
I've reveiewed my med history, trying to figure out what has been most effective for me... and this is when what I’ve come up with:
I had tried prozac (20mg/day) for a month, but stopped when the prescription ran out due to side effects - essentially memory problems (and sleepiness). I would go into another room, and by the time I got there, had no idea what it was I had intended to do or get. I could be in the middle of a train of thought, and all of a sudden, have no idea where I had been going with that train of thought, or what the goal of that train of thought had been, what I was trying to figure out, etc. [Fortunately (as it turns out) I wasn't working at the time, so I could appreciate the humorous side of it, and laugh at how ridiculous these "side-effects" were.]
After a week of no meds at all, I tried amisulpride for a 7 to 10 days. I slept most of the time - I'd say from 16 to 20 hours a day. So I stopped the amisulpride.
A few days later, I received the adrafinil that I had orderd, and tried that. It seemed to work great - felt like I hadn't felt for years... didn't really 'feel' anything (eg: didn’t feel a ‘buz’), but not feeling run-down, etc., and just feeling 'normal' again, felt so good. Best I’ve felt in years.
After about 2 weeks, I got the 'cold from hell', and felt Miserable for 2 weeks. During that period, I also started wellbutrin (primarily for smoking cessation, for which it had been helpful in the past, but it had been of minimal ,if any, benefit psychologically).
Anway, once the cold had passed, I felt pretty good again, but not to the level I had initially, when I first started the adrafinil.
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My thoughts were that perhaps the wellbutrin was interfering w/the adrafinil. Or that perhaps the first couple of weeks with adrafinil had been some kind of 'euphoric effect', which faded with time...Well, in the months since, I've had the opportunity to try the adrafinil alone (w/o the wellbutrin), as well as trying adrafinil 'again', after some wash-out periods w/no meds. The result being, the adrafinil is still helpful, but not to the extent it first was.
I've also tried adding amisulpride to the adrafinil... w/o much of a difference.
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OK, finally, here's the part about which I'm interested in soliciting feedback... I’m wondering if it’s possible that the prozac may have been working w/the adrafinil – due to prozac’s long half-life – during those first couple of weeks? Or am I grasping at straws here? When I started the adrafinil, it had been 3 weeks since I stopped the prozac, which had only been 20mg/day.What first made me consider this idea, was a second trial of amisulpride this summer, with nothing at all like the sedative effect I encountered the first time I tried it. My thinking was that perhaps my initial response to the amisulpride (extreme sedation) was due to the prozac still in my system when I tried it...? And if so, then maybe my optimum response to the adrafinil was also related to the residual prozac?
So, I’m considering:
Try low (very) dose prozac again w/the adrafinil? Low enough to avoid the memory/sedative effects... How low? (10mg? 5mg?) How long of a trial would I need to try? (I would stop it if I encountered the negative side effects again) I would have to buy the prozac retail at the moment – I have one refill of 60*10mg left, but no insurance coverage at the moment...
Or one other option – I have nearly a month’s worth of 37.5mg/day venlafaxine xr left from a previous trial... trying that at 37.5mg/day w/the adrafinil? I have previously tried 75mg/day, up to 225mg/day. Main effects were slight anxiolytic effect, serious anorgasmia, mild sedation, and (can’t remember for certain, but I think - ironically) some difficulty w/mental focus.
Any thoughts on these two ideas? Or am I chasing ghosts here...? Is my residual prozac idea pushing it a bit...? Hope this long ramble is coherent... Thanks for any feedback.
poster:michael
thread:45330
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000926/msgs/45330.html