Posted by SLS on March 7, 2004, at 7:28:39
In reply to Re: Question for SLS, posted by Flipsactown on March 7, 2004, at 5:10:35
Hi Flipsactown.
> I am getting ready to throw in the towel and start over with different AD or ADs. I have been on ADs for over 12 years for unipolar depression. Currently, I am on 100mg prozac, 90mg remeron, 400mg lamictal and 1200mg lithium.
Those are some very substantial dosages!
> Lithium was added nearly 3 months ago as I was still getting depressed in the late afternoons. Now, I am depressed all the time. In fact this is the most depressed I have been since I was first diagnosed with clinical depression over 12 years ago. I know you are on lithium and was wondering if I have given it enough time (3 months). The last blood level indicated .4 and so my pdoc raised the lithium to 1200mg to get to the therapeutic dose. It has been over a week since it was raised to 1200mg and I am more depressed than before. I am thinking of asking my pdoc for rx lexapro which I have not tried. What are your thoughts, my friend?
Lithium can make depression worse for some people. It does for me. I even tried using a 300mg low-dose strategy, hoping that it wouldn't affect me the same way 600mg does. No such luck. I felt worse within two days.
When lithium is used as an augmentation strategy to treat unipolar depression, often dosages between 300-600mg are effective. A response is often noticed within the first week. 3 months at 1200mg is sufficient to judge its utility.
Why are you continuing to take Prozac + Remeron? Do they help at all? What about Lamictal? Is there any chance that you are bipolar? There are a lot of drugs and drug combinations out there to try. I have added Namenda (memantine) to my drug regime. The NIMH (NIH) is sponsoring a clinical trial of Namenda in the hopes that it will help people with treatment-resistant depression. My doctor agreed to give it a try after I showed him the study.
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00040261
The investigators are still recuiting volunteers, so I'm sure it will be some time before the results are in.
Cymbalta (duloxetine) seems to be an exciting new antidepressant according to what has been published about it. With any luck, it will become available this summer.
Keep hope alive.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:319709
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040304/msgs/321519.html