Posted by jrw on March 9, 2001, at 11:13:34
In reply to Re: treatment resistant depression--ditto » Shar, posted by sweetmarie on March 9, 2001, at 7:26:57
Marie,
Sounds like you are doing the right thing, and
going to the right place. I hope it helps. I know
how frustrating it is when a drug that once
helped a lot no longer does...last fall, I had a
couple of strange days when Prozac, which had
once helped some, made me actually feel good for a
couple of days. It was amazing. I was thinking,
'Is this how other people usually feel?'I wish you the very best and am pulling for you.
J
> > My pdoc recently added .5 mg Risperdal to my cocktail of wellbutrin and effexor, and klnonpin at night. It worked (I felt relief from depression) within a few days. We upped it to .75 because I was having the "feeling ok then the bottom falls out" plus "rage reactions" and doc said increase could help me stay feeling better for 24 hours, plus rage reaction could be a rx to withdrawal when .50 couldn't get me thru 24 hours.
> >
> > BTW, I have not felt this good in years. Years! It is incredible. Zoloft also worked well for me, but pooped out. I am praying this will not poop out.
> >
> > Shar
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > I sound like a broken record because I say this so often, but as I see it there are a small handful of drugs that could prove very helpful to you. None of them have yet been tried. The only reason I suggest these drugs is because they have proven to be helpful to quite a few folks here that have had trouble with more straight forward treatments. Including me.
> > >
> > > The broken record drugs I'm referring to are Zyprexa, Amisulpride, Adrafinil, Risperdal, or any combination of two of them (not Zyprexa+Risperdal together though). Any of them, or any combination of them, seem to work especially well with a little bit of an SSRI in the background.
> > >
> > > The drugs you are on or have tried are far more harsh than any of these drugs I've mentioned. Since you can handle the side effects of the other drugs, then the ones I mentioned will seem like candy. Except for one thing. They will probably work.
> > >
> > > There are various theories as to what causes depression. The most popular one is a deficiency in neurotransmitters. Increasing them is what antidepressants do. You have pretty much exhausted that theory in your case. Time to explore other ones. That's where the drugs I mentioned come into play.
> > > John
>
> You are right I haven`t tried any of the drugs you mentioned (unless of course they go by different names here in the UK, but I didn`t recognise any of them). As I said in an earlier posting, this specialist whose care I will be under when I go for treatment at the hospital he works from, is trying me on Venlafaxine, Mirtazapine and Lamotragine (which I am already on, but he is `upping` the dose quite considerably from 25 mg to 250 mg). I am to be staying in hospital until `better`, in other words, it is an open-ended stay. What I imagine he`ll do is explore other options after this intial treatment - if it doesn`t work, and obviously I sincerely hope it does. I don`t know how much input I will be given in my treatment; my consultant encouraged me to be involved, and I found out about medications for myself, which we then tried. However, as an expert, I doubt if he will welcome the same involvement. One thing that I haven`t mentioned is that when I first sought medical help (11 years ago now), I was given Dothiepin. This worked almost 100%, and I couldn`t believe the quality of life it gave me - I hadn`t EVER felt like that. I discontinued the drug after a year, and the symptoms immediately recurred, so I went back onto it. This time, though, it did absolutely nothing at all, despite persisting for about 18 months at every dosage. I don`t know really why I mention this, but it has always struck me as odd and extremely frustrating, i.e. I wish I`d stayed on it. It`s just a `wait and see` situation again, but I guess that being in a unit that actually specialises in `difficult to treat` depression will mean that I am in the right place.
poster:jrw
thread:55847
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010302/msgs/56005.html