Posted by BarbaraCat on July 18, 2002, at 23:24:04
In reply to BarbaraCat » BarbaraCat, posted by McPac on July 18, 2002, at 16:32:40
Hi Mike,
Remeron worked great for the first month and then quit working and I got very depressed. This happens with most SSRI's that I've taken, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. My pdoc suggested I add lithium to it as an 'augmentor', meaning that sometimes adding another drug potentiates the action of the antidepressant. Lithium added to it worked very well. Within 1 month I was feeling very good, even though I started gaining weight like crazy. Lithium also causes weight gain and along with the Remeron I put on 25 lbs in 4 months.Since that time (February) I started suspecting, mainly from reading posts on this board, that my mood disorder was not simply major depression, but was actually Bipolar II. All the symptoms are there: antidepressants stop working and actually make things worse, episodes of hypomania where I'd get jacked up and not sleep and then crash and burn, along with other red flags. My depressions would also be extremely agitated and horrible, known as as mixed states in the Bipolar spectrum.
Anyhow, long story short, I'm beginning to think that I don't need Remeron at all, but definitely do need lithium or some other mood stabiliser that works primarily on Bipololar disorder. That being said, Remeron is notorious for pooping out, or quitting after a while, and generally needs something to augment it with. I happen to like lithium (I think - never been on just it alone) and am going to try to add Lamictal, another mood stabiliser to it, without the Rem. The main reason is due to weight gain, and unsteadiness. If that doesn't work, I'm back to Remeron. As I said earlier, it's the best AD I've been on. But maybe AD's aren't what I really need. Hope this helps and let me know if there's anything else I can answer. I'm probably one of the few people in this country that have gone up to 75mg on it. -Barbara
> BarbaraCat---You said in an earlier post of yours "I love Remeron, even though it's put 10 pounds on me. It's the only AD I've ever been able to tolerate, but it needs Lithium to avoid poop-out."
>
> Barbara, I take Zoloft & Remeron and I USED to take Lithium too. I have been off the Lithium now for awhile. I notice that I do NOT feel as good at all without the Lithium (I feel more depressed, more anxiety, more temper/anger). When you said that your Remeron needs Lithium to avoid "poop-out", did you mean that you need the Lithium also in order to feel better? (That's what I think I've noticed about myself---that the antidepressant alone does NOT work as well for me without the Lithium). Thanks for any response in advance! Mike
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:1924
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/112855.html