Posted by zero on April 13, 2004, at 23:53:27
In reply to Re: Anti-depressants on an as-needed basis?, posted by Racer on April 13, 2004, at 17:57:15
My experience with AD's (Trazodone, MAOI's, SRI's, a couple of TCA's, Wellbutrin, and more) is an almost immediate mood elevation (even w. low dose, i.e. 1/10th normal dose). With me, this continues into hypomania and further if I keep taking a "normal" dose regularly.
I doubt it's placebo, as the 1st one, Trazodone, caught me off-guard and made me feel "on top of the world" in 2 hrs. (rx'd to help me go to sleep, and "in a few weeks or so", help w. my depression).
My reaction is the same with every AD I've taken.
My 2nd psychopharm. (and 1st insightful one) said, after my 1st week on Nardil @15mg./day, "you're feeling too good, too soon, on too low a dose - I think you're bipolar".
This psychopharm. also told me that most of his patients "like me" (bipolar spectrum w. lots of anxiety features) did best on very low-dose SRI + mood stabilizer ("pediatric doses" he called them).
I know people who use Effexor "as needed", and break open a time release capsule to count out the # of sphere's to take (one person ranges from 6-20 spheres per day, 1-3 days per week, might skip a week, depending).
The mode of action of AD's is not fully understood and is, at best, a work in progress.
Individuals respond quite differently to psych. meds. - for more reasons than are understood.
My experience (and I know there are others like me) w. low-dose AD use, is that they can work, work almost immediately (not placebo), and can be used PRN.
Everyone is different.
poster:zero
thread:336019
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/336179.html