Posted by Thrud on August 26, 2001, at 21:37:23
In reply to Re: Xanax and panic, experiences? » Thrud, posted by Elizabeth on August 26, 2001, at 9:47:27
> Just getting a diagnosis and finding a treatment that worked virtually eliminated my anticipatory anxiety. You know? It was like, wow, there's a name for this and it's treatable. PAD has been much easier for me to deal with than depression (it started a lot later, too).
I was the reverse. I suffered very strong "agitated" sort of anxiety for at least 6 months before the PAs started. It was after "they" began, started spiralling up in frequency until I was having many per day that my atypical depression started. When I first crawled to a shrinks office he suspected possible epilepsy. When the EEG came back normal he diagnosed panic and put me on some tricyclic (doxepin I think). It was almost as bad as nothing. And so the 11 year struggle began..
The point I am making is that I was probably diagnosed correctly right from the start but no AD ever fully suppressed the attacks and corresponding anticipatory anxiety. The depression, on the other hand, responded quickly and very easily. I think only psychological depression remains: not regaining sexual function. Only two types of med have treated PAD adequately for me:Lamictal (only AED-mood stabilizer I've ever tried). Unfortunately gave me sexual dyfunction w/cognitive difficulties (word recall) and high levels of residual anxiety (but no attacks). Still needed some Xanax.
Xanax (only benzo I've ever tried). At 6mg per day, STRONG sexual dysfunction (cognitive problems again, word recall + attention). Bad ataxia (stumbling like drunk).
(BTW the worst cognitive problems I ever had was with Effexor XR. I was angry and embarassed for years with that)>Klonopin (which I've been taking at 4 mg/day for about 2 weeks because desipramine doesn't work as well for PAD as Parnate did) doesn't seem to be much of an AD, either. (Xanax is supposed to be a better AD than the other benzos, anyway, except for adinazolam of course.)
Any cognitive difficulties with the 4mg/day Klonopin? If yes, were they transient?
What is adinazolam? I am going to look it up...
How do benzos exert an antidepressant effect? I thought that the GABA system was rather independent from the HT-NE-DA chain?
> > I do, but it is not really very strong or activating (not enough to counteract the AD depression). The antidepressant effect is why, at the moment, my pdoc is sticking firmly with Xanax.
>
> That makes sense to me. I'm glad he's not a benzophobe.So am I. He is fairly old (late 60s I am guessing)and been practicing for a long time. His clinical experience goes strongly against a lot of the 'fad' stuff like anti-benzo crusades, so he chooses experience over fads.
> > > I think there are differences that aren't taken care of by transsexual surgery and hormone therapy. :-) I guessed that you're a guy because it seems like sedatives tend to have that effect on men but not on women (if anything, they have the reverse effect on women).
> >
> > Hmmm. Maybe I should peddle some of my stuff as 'Viagranax' ;)
>
> I feel really dense, like there's a joke that I'm not getting. (Explain?)Dumb joke: Viagranax as in Xanax, the "Viagra" for women. (even though viagra is obviously not an aphrodisiac, that is the public perception)
> That's pretty scary -- it seems like all different sorts of ADs do that to you. Have you ever tried a stimulant, like Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine, Cylert, or Provigil?No. That is another possible avenue. I read somewhere that opiates (or is it opioids) have been used against PAD. Have you heard of this? My google searches aren't turning up much. Maybe you know the pros and cons of these drugs?
>
> Wellbutrin was icky for me. It made my depression worse -- I was anxious and constantly ruminating, I was waking up in the middle of the night feeling miserable more often and it was harder to get back to sleep, I was on edge and easily startled, I stopped eating altogether.I fully understand. I could not sleep, full stop. The slightest sound would wake me. One thing I will say for benzos: *great* nights sleep without feeling drugged out when you wake up.
> That's why I thought Parnate would be the MAOI for you to try. Selegiline is tricky and can cause agitation.If you look up Selegiline on rxlist.com sexual dysfunction appears *everywhere* as a side effect! I do not know why so many people claim it has prosexual properties.
As for Parnate, as soon as I read the side-effect profile I got flashbacks of the bad old days of TCAs and SSRIs: I am never going down that path again.
> It would be interesting to see how the combination of a stimulant and Xanax would work.Yes, I will definitely discuss this with my pdoc.
> > Have you tried inositol by chance? I have come across one or two studies suggesting it is better against panic and depression than prozac. Since it is not a patentable material, I do not expect to find much more about it.
>
> I've heard good things about it. I never tried it myself.'Heard' as in published literature or anecdotally?
> > After more than 10 years of this merry-go-round I am tempted to adopt a "Darth Maul" costume, accept my bitterness and wreak revenge on an innocent world!
>
> < giggle fit >Yes, and Jar-Jar Binks will be the first to take a double-bladed light sabre to the head...
Thrud
poster:Thrud
thread:76063
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010822/msgs/76508.html