Posted by HoosierDaddyTim on November 8, 2003, at 20:34:29
In reply to Re: Just a little warning... » HoosierDaddyTim, posted by Ame Sans Vie on November 7, 2003, at 20:27:24
Wow, Lot's of things to consider I see..
> If the Paxil is working well for you, why do you want to try another SSRI? Side effects? Curiosity?
Yes, they make me Jittery at the 20 mg twice a day dose that I'm on now, but if I take less it doesn't seem to do anything for me.. When I first started on it, 20 mg was plenty..
If you're just curious about the effects of the other drugs or are hoping for greater symptom relief than Paxil is providing, then I wholeheartedly encourage you to try out the others.
Yes, I'd like to see if I can take less pain killers by trying another SSRI or one of the other Anti depressents.. but I worry more about the SSRI's etc hurting my liver, kidneys, etc.. as Opiods are very very safe and not harmful to the body except for some constipation maybe.. Of course one has to maintain dosage, etc, but that's easy with the right pain doc.. Of course many docs are scarred because of irrational fears of addiction, or because of prosecution, so one has to almost find a pain specialist.. I have pain that is almost suicidal at times.. even with the paxil..
By switching to another SSRI, you avoid the Paxil withdrawal: withdrawal from Ultram felt exactly like Paxil or Luvox withdrawal to me, but *much* worse. Makes sense because of Ultram's serotonin reuptake inhibiting properties. I tried tapering down several times without any alleviation of the discontinuation symptoms; I threw caution to the wind and tried cold turkey once or twice but couldn't even make it through the first miserable 24 hours. That's why I brought up the Prozac idea to my psychiatrist -- I've read here and elsewhere that Prozac is commonly used to cheat withdrawal from SSRIs due to the ultra-long half-lives of it and its metabolites. It takes at least a week for a single dose of Prozac to completely rid itself from your body; by contrast, Paxil is in and out in under a day. Apparently this gives Prozac a rather smooth, gentle withdrawal for many people, and since it's performing similar functions in the brain to the other SSRIs it can often be substituted easily for the discontinuation period.
Yes, it has a long half life I guess it's called ? Anyway, I tried Prosac and it didn't work for me, and just made me Dizzy.. Next they tried Buspar.. Same thing..
Having gone through withdrawal from all the SSRIs, I can say with fair certainty that if an SSRI can stop the withdrawal from Ultram, it can do the same for any other SRI-type drug.
>
> If you want to try one of the other options, I might be inclined to suggest Luvox, based solely on the fact that you like Paxil's effects, and I found Luvox to be indistinguishable in manner of effect but far stronger than Paxil. Apart from that, all I can really tell you based on my experiences is that Lexapro worked great for me even though Celexa didn't do a thing.I tried Lexapro, but I had some bad bad jitters with it, but it did work as well as the paxil.. but I shook like I had palsy or something.. It was awful..
The side effects ultimately caused me to discontinue it though. Zoloft slightly inhibits dopamine reuptake, if I recall correctly, which may be part of the reason that some people prefer it (though it threw me into a hyperagitated homocidal sort of mania when I tried it, and my aunt responded exactly the same way).
I've not tried it but I know a woman that uses it in addition to flexeril and has good results, although she's still bed ridden most of the time becuase of lack of energy.. They had her on Elavil which she gained like 50 lbs on and she said it worked at first, but they had to keep rasing the dose and she got to were it didn't work for her later on..
>
> Have you tried Effexor? It's possible that it could be more effective at ridding you of some of your pain -- drugs that inhibit norepinephrine reuptake along with that of serotonin are often great for dulling chronic pain.Effexor is the drug I'd like to try..
A great example is the muscle relaxer Flexeril, which is really nothing more than a tricyclic antidepressant when you get down to it. It inhibits NE and 5-HT uptake and has strong anticholinergic and antihistamine activity, making it very similar to Elavil (which is used quite often in treating fibromyalgia).
I've tried Elavil, but was too groggy with it when trying to work.. I also had terrible dry mouth with it.. I coudln't work it was so groogy in the AM.. and it took like 4 hours to get past that just in the AM.. By lunch it was gone, but I can't work with it.. Otherwise it worked pretty well.. I took it about 3 weeks.. and the Neuro changed me on it..
>
> On the other hand, if there are side effects from the Paxil that are causing you trouble, it's quite probable that you won't avoid them by switching to another SSRI (or Effexor, for that matter). Some side effects can be reversed by additional medication though -- sexual side effects and apathy may respond to some type of pro-dopaminergic drug (e.g. Wellbutrin, Buspar, amphetamines, Ritalin, Mirapex) or, in the case of sexual side effects, Periactin or bethanechol.Where did you learn so much about these meds?
Best Regards
Tim
poster:HoosierDaddyTim
thread:273743
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031105/msgs/277818.html