Posted by Elizabeth on November 8, 2001, at 17:09:43
In reply to Re: other stuff » Elizabeth, posted by Mitch on November 7, 2001, at 13:30:08
> My resting HR (not on the meds mentioned)is normally around 60bpm. When I was on Effex. or NT or any TCA for that matter it tends to get elevated up to around 75-80.
That's more common -- it's at least in part due to anticholinergic activity.
> Yes, Benadryl, etc. Well, Claritin didn't, but that is a selective peripheral antagonist. Let me think...Well I tried Seldane and it made me "wired", restless, and fogged up, yuck.
Seldane isn't supposed to cross the BBB either, but probably that's different for different people. (I've encountered a few people who get drowsy on Zyrtec, in particular.)
> Yes, done serum level on NT once and it was subtherapeutic-BUT I wasn't taking an SSRI with it at the time (cyp2d6), and I waited too long after the last dose.
Shouldn't consider that necessarily accurate, then.
Jeez, I need to get a desipramine serum level. I had one drawn while I was in the hospital, but of course I never hear back from those guys about blood chemistry and stuff.
> Reboxetine-I think that might be a perfect low-dose augment to my low-dose Zoloft. Not available here in U.S., though.
No. I'd be interested to try it too, if we had it here. You could probably order it from overseas -- I wonder if it's expensive.
> I was on doxepin for about four years, amitriptyline for about two-never seemed to shake the tachycardia and orthostatic hypotension.
Those are two of the worst ones, especially amitriptyline.
> NT is the only one that seems to have minimal OH (even less than Remeron-which I tried for a few months the first time around).
What about DMI?
> No, in general they (SSRI's) tend to make me smiley and cheerful, but often can cause akathisia and heighten "startle" type reactions.
Real akathisia, or just "jitters?" I was getting startled easily when I was on Provigil (it didn't happen with Dexedrine, Adderall, Cylert, or Ritalin, that I recall). The day I tried going up to 200 mg, I went to see the movie _Three Kings_, which has a lot of explicit violence, plus a pretty intense torture scene. Needless to say, I was jumping off the walls.
> When I was taking Buspar it was to reduce some of the restlessness caused by Celexa and improve GAD-type symptoms. Well, as I brought the Buspar dose up from 5mg > 10mg I became very very dysphoric and hateful, talking to myself a lot, and nearly became physically violent on several occasions. Don't know if it was from serotonin agonism, whatever.
Buspar is mainly a partial agonist at the 5-HT1a receptor. Unique, but not especially useful at recommended doses, IMO! (It was first tested -- as an antipsychotic -- in doses on the order of a *gram*, and it was well tolerated AFAIK, though ineffective. I think it should be used in the range of 45-120 mg.)
> All I know is that the only thing that I can find in common with Remeron is the alpha-2 antagonist activity.
Well, let me know if you can find anything on 1-PP (as a metabolite of Buspar) that suggests it contributes significantly. I wrote a paper about the strategy of selectively activating 5-HT1a receptors (i.e., Buspar and pindolol) a couple years ago and the literature that was available at the time indicated that 1-PP probably didn't contribute significantly to Buspar's effects.
> And I got very very nasty and hateful on Remeron as well. Interestingly on Remeron I also developed a mild stutter or vocal tic at times.
That is weird! I don't think I've ever gotten hostile or aggressive on any drug (although naloxone or naltrexone might do it!), but I have found that some drugs make me less aggressive. Not passive, just more friendly, better at working things through. It's very difficult for anybody to make me lose my temper when I'm in that state. Nice side benefit.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:82248
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83574.html