Posted by JohnL on October 28, 2000, at 17:10:25
In reply to Re:John, your suggestion please?, posted by coral on October 28, 2000, at 14:34:06
> Dear John,
>
> As I mentioned in an earlier post, it took a long time for the Zoloft to kick in, including increasing the dosage to 150 mgs, for my first depressive episode.
> During my second, the Zoloft kicked in at three days. I'm now well along the way on the healing side of this second episode, and am considering going off Zoloft. However, on bad days during this recovery phase, can I increase the Zoloft (I'm now taking 50 mg) for a day or two to help through a rough patch?
> My sister is on Paxil and does exactly that. When she started on Paxil, I was "healthy", not taking anything and my only experience with SSRI's had been my first episode, and thought it was a placebo effect that was helping her. However, after reading your posts, I realize I could be mistaken.
> Your thoughts, please?Coral,
I used to experience the same thing years ago with Paxil. It was never a fully effective medication, as it left me kind of numb and blah, but I was free from depression most of the time at 20mg a day. Every now and then though I would experience a break-through depressive episode and I would raise my dose to 30mg. It ended the episode in about 2 or 3 days, and then after a couple weeks under control I would go back down to 20mg and be fine for a couple months until the next time.As with everything in psychiatry, I don't think it can be adequately explained why these phenomenon can work with some people and not others. We just know from real life observations that it happens. Any explanation may or may not be correct, but until proven is speculation. I tend to go with what works and leave the mathematics to someone else.
Will it work for you? I don't know. The hints are there that it could. It's certainly the easiest and most logical of all options to try. That's exactly what I would, and have, done successfully. I know it doesn't jive with academia explanations of brain chemistry, but hey, if it works, it works, right? If it doesn't, it doesn't. It sounds like it could work fine. Certainly worth exploring. I don't think an increased dose would work the first day, though it has been known to before, but I would more realistically expect something from 2 to 4 days.
Why are you considering going off Zoloft? Statistics are not in your or my favor. After one episode, we have a 50/50 chance of another. After two episodes, the odds increase to 90%. After three episodes, you can be pretty sure it's going to pester you forever. The best insurance is prophylactic medicine. Even if you feel well on Zoloft and you feel you can do without it, it might be worth considering staying with it just to protect yourself from the next downswing. You might even find 25mg would do that.
I tried this with Zoloft and it worked pretty good, that is, better than normal dosing. I took 50mg one day, then 75mg the next, then 50mg the next, then 75mg, and so on. When I avoided a steady state of the drug in my system, it just seemed to work better, and life seemed more real. Who knows, maybe 25/50 alternating pattern might be something to consider and try, just as prophylactic insurance.
Hope something here is helpful,
John
(disclaimer: I'm not a professional and I can't prescribe, but information herein is accurate and honest to the best of my knowledge)
:-) In case anyone else out there is reading this, I thought I'd throw this in for grins. :-)
poster:JohnL
thread:46914
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001022/msgs/47636.html