Posted by King Vultan on September 24, 2004, at 20:04:07
In reply to Socially fearful, posted by sabre on September 24, 2004, at 6:33:13
In the antidepressant class, the MAOIs are still the most effective drugs for social phobia. Nardil and Parnate are the two available in the US, and I have tried them both and found them quite effective. Parnate, which I've only been on for a month, seems to be working better for me because its dopaminergic effect seems to increase my self confidence and assertiveness significantly. Nardil has a different set of strengths and is probably better for people who have fundamentally high levels of anxiety to begin with, as it also works on GABA, the neurotransmitter that benzodiazepines work on.
My opinion is that the reboxetine doesn't necessarily sound like a great choice for you, as one if its main effects will be stimulation of the beta receptors that your propanolol generally helps you out by blocking. I took the relatively similar tricyclic AD desipramine last year and found it did increase my overall anxiety levels, almost certainly because of stimulation of these beta adrenergic receptors. Paradoxically, though, desipramine did greatly improve my social phobia, as did the other two tricyclics I tried. In my case, however, I also have panic disorder elements involved, as my anxiety will escalate to the point of inducing runaway, profuse sweating. This type of thing may have something to do with a malfunction in the norepinephrine system, which is why tricyclics worked relatively well for my problem. However, they don't appear to work as well as the MAOIs do in either panic disorder or social phobia.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:394626
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040921/msgs/394711.html