Posted by shelliR on July 22, 2001, at 13:02:16
In reply to Re: I'll hold your hand if you'll hold mine » shelliR, posted by Lorraine on July 21, 2001, at 10:47:46
> > > > > > > > > > > > > >
> I was just reading an article on anxiety that said that the MAOs are 60-85% effective with anxiety and, surprisingly, said that a their clinic at least, the preference was Parnate over Nardil. www.anxietynetwork.com/pdmed.html This is encouraging to me because the sexual dysfunction and weight gain has me shying away from Nardil from now. It's great that you did not have these side effects.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > >This is the statement from the article sited, concerning nardil vs. parnate:
"We have found that, in general, Parnate, as opposed to Nardil, is more effective with many of the anxiety disorders, provided there are no other anxiety or mental health care complications. "
That's a bit confusing to me. I think what they are saying is that they have found that parnate is more effective for agoraphobia /panic disorder, I don't think they are saying one way or the other about generalized anxiety, which I assume they mean by "other anxiety". At least that's my take, but I could be misunderstanding what they meant.
I don't remember whether you have panic. (?) In any case, I think starting with parnate is a reasonable choice, and if it turns out ineffective, there is only a ten day waiting period to then try nardil.
Thanks for the pointing me to the Stahl articles on estrogen. When I was still seeing my last pdoc, she steered me away from trying birth control pills for premenstral symptoms, both physical and psychological. In retrospect, because of my age, and the definite worsening of my depression in a fairly stable period of my life, I think it was negligent to not explore the hormonal aspect of my depression. We talked about it, but she wanted to approach the depression in other ways. By the end of our relationship, she was threatening me to drop me as a patient because of my use of vicidin and she was heavily pushing any and all of the atypical APs.
Luckily, she didn't have the same reluctance that other doctors do about my use of valium or klonopin. However, both her objection to my use of vicidin and her refusal to accept my stance against a large weight gain still annoy me. I tried dozens of drugs for the depression, none worked, and a very small bit of vicidin worked and I did not increase it for three years. I felt that she could afford to be smug and righteous about my use of oxycodone and my refusal to take meds causing me large weight gains, because it was not her life that was passing by, and not her body that was changing. My belief is that if doctors have panic attacks they quickly change their mind about benzos , and if they were as depressed as I was and had tried as many drugs unsuccessfully, they would be more willing to try opiates, especially buprenorphine. She wouldn't even read the literature on it (I brought in copies and she wouldn't even take them). That remains beyond my comprehension. Ah, yes, if the tables were turned. . . . Anyway, enough of my rant.
How long to you have to wait to try parnate? I'm really doing pretty well, so I think unless I start to spiral down, I may put off trying another MAOI and see what the estrogen does. I'll let you test parnate before I decide < g >. I think you have a lot of reason to be very optimistic about MAOIs. I think the nardil would still be working for me if I had not entered into my perimenapausal years.
Thanks again for the info on estrogen; I'm getting a little more psyched now, after reading those.
How's was the valium yesterday?
Take care,
Shelli
poster:shelliR
thread:67742
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010720/msgs/71363.html