Posted by shelliR on July 27, 2001, at 18:43:31
In reply to Re: MAOI patches » Elizabeth, posted by SalArmy4me on July 26, 2001, at 23:12:33
> Has any opiate really made that much of a difference in your life? Or are the MAOI's you take the ones that truly have an antidepressant effect?
As hard as it has been for you to accept, opiates have made an enormous difference in my life. Presently I am not taking an MAOI for the first time in about fifteen years (except for a couple of months when "new" meds came out and I tried them, such as effexor, serzone, etc.)
I don't think that opiates are for everyone. I started taking them for pain, not depression, and discovered quite quickly that they were great both for premenstrual pain and for premenstrual depression for me. I was on Nardil the whole time, so I guess I considered the vicidin (which I used then) to be the augmenter. When nardil pooped out, vicidin took over as the main medication.
This last time in the hospital I was seen by a pdoc who generally does not see patients on the unit I was on. It's a much smaller unit, and it is for abuse survivors. It is much more personal and feel safer to me than the larger regular adult unit.
I had already decided that I wanted to try selegiline, but I was so incredibly depressed I didn't think I was going to make it through until the selegine kicked in. So he put me on OxyContin because it would be much smoother than taking vicidin every four or five hours. My depression lifted with the first dose. I dropped the selegiline after about three weeks; I was shakey and got bad pains in my legs.Really the only question that remains is how long I can keep up this dosage and still get the same anti-depressant effects. If I can find something else that also stabilizes me I think there is less likelihood that I will become habituated to the oxy. I did a few week trial of prozac with concerta and that wasn't good for me. So now I am trying estrogen and may (after my waiting period) go back to nardil, or try parnate for the first time.
Lots of people don't like the feel of opiates. And I would not recommend opiates to anyone who has an addictive personality, or has had cravings for any drug in the past. But yes, opiates can be extremely useful for TRD, under a doctor's supervision.
I also think MAOIs are greatly underused. Nardil was a wonderful anti-depressant for me for many years.Shelli
poster:shelliR
thread:71841
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010725/msgs/72115.html