Posted by froggyanna on June 2, 2003, at 16:52:39
In reply to Keep the Strattera updates coming! (nm), posted by Hattree on May 30, 2003, at 10:38:47
Hi All,
I posted in another message:
> So, in summary:
> 0.2mg Levoxyl in morning;
> 100mg Zoloft in morning;
> 60mg buspirone at night;
> 40mg Straterra at night;
> Add and gradually increase Wellbutrin, 100-200mg twice a day over 10 days;
> Try eliminating Zoloft after this;
> Add T3 thyroid treatment, possibly Cytomel;
> Depending on effect of thyroid treatment, increase Straterra to 120mg max.
>
> That's my current "recipe," and I feel like I am on the right path.
> I'm noticing gradual improvement in my functioning and the
> side effects are not unmanageable. I am looking very favorably
> right now on Straterra, by itself and in combination with other medications.I have to kind of amend that statement. I'm on my 11th day today and over the past two days, I began to notice an increase in irritability. It's been years since I've had a problem with that. Yesterday (Sunday), it was so bad that I found myself being very sarcastic to my husband in a very rare, emotional kind of argument. We made up OK, but I hated it. The irritability is definitely being caused by something I'm taking. Along with the irritability, I'm feeling increased agitation. I kind of always used to shake my leg a bit when sitting, but that has gotten even worse.
As I also said in that message, my pdoc suggested I take Straterra at night to forestall the daytime sleepiness. That seems to work a bit, but yesterday, because of the argument, and because I just want to get my act together NOW, I decided to take an additional 40mg daytime dose after the one I took at bedtime the night before. MISTAKE. The tiredness hit me like a brick and I was out for three hours. Woke up even more agitated and only slightly less irritable.
I had been told by the doc to start with 40, go up to 80, and then 120. But now I'm really beginning to BELIEVE the people who are saying to take it in 10mg increases. And teacherkris mentioned a study saying 110mg was found to be the "therapeutic dose."
So my questions are:
1. Has anyone else been advised to take Straterra at night? If so, is that decreasing your daytime sleepiness?
2. If you increased your dosage slowly, did you avoid the tiredness? The agitation? The irritability?
3. Would there be any benefit to taking part of the dose before bed and part in the morning?
4. How many days did you go before increasing?
5. Was it a month or more before you started experiencing any real effect on your ADD symptoms? Are you MAINTAINING those effects?
Those are only some of my questions, actually. I'm just so eager to get my head straightened out that I'm feeling impatient, even though I KNOW that I have to give it time. I suppose that if someone had actually stabilized on Straterra they might not still be hanging around this discussion forum. But I sure would like to hear some real success stories. I am "afraid" to start taking the stimulants... at least not until I've done all I can without them.
Thank you VERY much for any and all advice you can offer!
froggyanna
poster:froggyanna
thread:133458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030530/msgs/230880.html