Posted by Ritch on January 20, 2003, at 9:30:34
In reply to Re: Very Confused-need some advice » Ritch, posted by Peter on January 20, 2003, at 2:46:08
> > Yeah, Iknow what you mean. Coming off the zoloft so fast really sucked-felt like when I used to experience withdrawl from all sorts of nasty street drugs. I got an email back from my pdoc tonight, and he said I shouldn't take the nortrip.-that my sudden mood cycling even after a period of improvement is normal, andI shouldn't be surpised by it atleast until we get up to a higher dose of lamictal. So, he told me to up the lamictal from 50mg to 75mg starting tomorrow. He believes in the antidepressant AND stabilizing effects of lamictal-that they're sufficient to render the med somewhat of an equivalent of taking a mood stabilizer + an AD, but with much less of a chance of (hypo)mania-switching. Your idea about some low-dose zoloft in the interim sounds extremely sensible to me, but he wants me off the zoloft now completely. It's just gonna require more waiting, and I gotta hang in there. Oh-another thing about coming off the zoloft-those crazy electric shock sensations up the arms and legs (in addition to all the other stuff). Crazy. And I thought zoloft was supposed to be the easiest of the sri's to stop-except for maybe celexa. Interestingly, I never had such problems stopping paxil, which I think is supposed to be the worst for withdrawal. Oh well; since we share similar symptoms, have you ever tried lamictal?
> PeterNope, I haven't tried it. I think I would need to be seeing a different pdoc to get that one. I have had a few allergic skin reactions to meds in the past and my pdoc is hesitant (and I am a little uptight about taking it as well). I take Depakote and the mix of Dep/Lamictal is the most troublesome. I want to continue the Dep., regardless, so that adds to the safety issue of it for me. I'm getting by reasonably well on what I am taking now, so I don't really want to rock the boat a whole bunch. Fortunately, my depressions are seasonal and predictable, but it would be nice to take a "mood stabilizer" that had as good an antidepressant response as lithium did. Can't take lithium anymore. Lamictal would be the next logical choice.
poster:Ritch
thread:136494
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030119/msgs/136716.html