Posted by cubbybear on January 26, 2003, at 2:07:46
In reply to Re: In the depths of depression--please help, posted by proud mary on January 25, 2003, at 11:15:37
For Proud Mary--
You asked about my meds. It's a complicated situation so I'll try to keep it short. I don't live in the U.S. When I was there, I had 18 years of success on MAOI Parnate. I moved to Thailand about 4 years ago but Parnate is unavailable here. For the first 2 years or so, I would travel back to the U.S. once a year and pick up a year's supply of Parnate. Last year, I decided to try switching to one of the newer generation anti-depressants. That's when the troubles started (along with physical health and job problems). I switched to Remeron, which pooped out on me after about 6 mos. I then tried Zoloft, and disliked it for a number of reasons. I felt in my gut that I would do best on MAOs, and the only MAO type medication here is called Moclobemide (Aurorix). That's what I'm presently taking (600 mg.) It's not available in the U.S. and if you're curious about it, there's plenty in the archives about it. Other posters in the past have talked about the need to go as high as 900 mg. so perhaps that would work. But my pdoc here might be averse to doing that, and besides, it's getting to be very costly, as I have to keep increasing the dosage.
My dr. said that I should give it 4-6 weeks at my present dose. So far, three weeks have passed. My feeling is that if I have no success by mid-February, I will have no choice but to go back to square one and purchase the Parnate in the U.S. But getting through the waiting periods, the phase-outs, and all the transitions takes loads of time--every minute can seem like an eternity-- and today I feel like I'm hanging on a thread. I could go on and on, but I said I'd try to keep it short. That's the med story--success with Parnate, no satisfaction with Remeron or Zoloft, and still waiting and praying for Aurorix to work. Go ahead and ask me anything else you'd like.
poster:cubbybear
thread:137446
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030125/msgs/137585.html