Posted by SalArmy4me on April 24, 2001, at 7:55:41
Sal(vation)Army4me's Guide to Treatment-Resistant Depression
If you have a case of depression that has been resistant to many medications, please follow these instructions:1) Get new and better medications _any_ way you can. If you can't get your doctor to prescribe them, then go to Mexico. Go to Canada if you want
Moclobemide or Vestra. Oh, buy your medicines from a wholesaler rather than a big pharmacy chain to save money.
2) Get an antidepressant that works on two or more chemicals in the brain. Venlafaxine is good (it works on serotonin, norepinephrine, and possibly dopamine). Wellbutrin works on dopamine and norepinephrine.
3) Take the maximum dose or 75% of the maximum dose as soon as you can. From years of experience, people eventually learn that getting up to a full dose really _does_ help. Though many tell you to slowly titrate your medication, the honest truth is that the psychiatrists don't want you to do this for fear you will move on to another doctor due to dissatisfaction (side-effects)...If you can make it through the initial side-effects, you have what it takes to rid yourself of depression quickly; Side-effects will lessen with time.
4) Accelerate your antidepressant's action with pindolol or risperidone. I can show you the studies that support these drugs' ability to hasten your relief.5) Combat the side-effects: This is the only way you will be able to make it through a mediction like Parnate or Lithium. Here are the medications you might need: Protonix/Prevacid (stomacheache,
esophagitis, nausea); Inderal (tremor); Urecholine/Flomax (dry mouth, constipation, sweating, urinary retention); Provigil/Cylert
(drowsiness, fatigue); Elavil/Depakote (headaches);
Desyrel/Restoril/Ambien (short-acting relief of insomnia); Salagen (salivation); Wellbutrin/Remeron (sexual side-effects); Cycling (Neurontin/Lamictal); Allegra/Claritin (congestion)...etc.
6) You might have some annoying side-effect, and you scare the heck out of yourself because you fear (perhaps completely irrationally) that you will develop a mortal illness... Dr. Dad says (not verbatim), "Every medication lists many horrific side-effects on the prescribing-reference, and noone actually gets them. But my patients will object to taking medications I prescribe, based on the miniscule chance of a permanent side effect-- the sad part is that they will suffer until they have no other choice but to accept treatment."
more later....
poster:SalArmy4me
thread:60982
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010424/msgs/60982.html