Posted by Emme on October 23, 2003, at 22:21:05
In reply to Re: Worried About the Future with Antidepressants , posted by nickm on October 23, 2003, at 9:58:16
Hi. I'm sorry your wife has had such bad reactions and wasn't treated by someone who knew what they were doing. She's paid a high price. It's tough playing musical meds. I'm lucky. My pdoc always believes my side effect descriptions, and if I have an idea about which drug is causing it, she listens.
I took something like 2 mg abilify, sometimes only every other day. It made me antsy. It also seems to have made me feel the cold terribly. All that said, it sure did pop me out of terrible depression within 48 hours! No lie. It really gave me a break for a while. The restlessness was annoying, but what made me want to get rid of it was feeling freezing cold all the time.
I assume you've been reading over on the Alternative board? The main reasons I started trying the Zn and Se was because the anticonvulsants seemed to be making my hair drier. It seems better since I started taking them. I've seen posts here about benefits of Zn and Se for mood problems.
My pdoc says there are some small but reasonable studies showing that the chromium picolinate can help. She really only goes for altnernative things if there are at least a few well-executed studies on them. Of course the fish oil stuff seems well established. The B-complex seemed like a good idea since I'm vegetarian and want to make sure I get enough B-12. Again, lots of stuff on the B's posted here.
Except for the L-phenylalanine to boost selegiline, I haven't gone the amino acid route, but I'm watching what people here have to say.
Emme
> Thanks for the suggestions, Emme. Will ask this new doctor about those things you're taking. My wife has taken so many things! She was then called refractory, and referred to ECTs. Neither the referring doctor, nor the ECT psychiatrist diagnosed her EPS symptoms, akathisia, dysthonia, etc. She was put through five ECTs and they had to be stopped.
>
> That's why I'm so concerned. She was on Serzone for seven weeks, and as soon as we fired the ECT practitioner, the new doctor told us he wouldn't prescribe Serzone for his patients and took her off it (The liver damage thing in Europe, Canada, and in the Physician's Referral Manual in the US - the FDA is aware of it).
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Nickm
poster:Emme
thread:272034
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031021/msgs/272488.html