Posted by lia mason on January 3, 2005, at 10:31:11
In reply to TCAs and Weight Gain, posted by tygereyes on January 3, 2005, at 0:35:43
Hello,
You have my sympathies. I recovered from anorexia/bulimia and I have vulvodynia--a pain condition somethimes referred to as IC's "evil sister".
So I have been on all these meds. Are you sure you can't take an SSRI? I found that SSRI's helped my eating disorder the most. They were great at breaking the obsession and stopped me from craving enormous amounts of sugar.
I, too, must take a TCA for my gyn condition. I found desipramine the most activating, but elavil worked best for pain. I didn't gain weight on desipramine or imipramine. Nortriptyline I took only briefly cuz it made me dizzy. Elavil I have gained some weight on, but not much. Be sure to get a blood level with all these drugs if you are hoping for an antidepressant response. Nortrip, especially. With pain it doesn't matter so much, but for depression you really need to know that you are getting enough in your bloodstream for an antidepressant response.
For vulvodynia, a lot of women are taking Effexor and Cymbalta.
My concern for you is that you're at a stage where you're super sensitive to weight changes. Elavil, I believe, increased my sugar cravings. And that was precisely my eatind disorder issue. But I'm 10+ years recovered so I can manage. I would consider desipramine or imipramine.
But do double check that you can't take SSRI's. I'm on a list serv for vulvar pain with a lot of IC people on it and I've not heard that about SSRI's. Have you tried Elmiron for IC? It's supposed to work really well.
I don't know if bulimia was an issue for you, but there is a book called "New Hope for Binge Eaters" by Pope and Hudson. It's old now, but it looked specifically at antidepressants for bulimia.
Good Luck!
Lia
poster:lia mason
thread:437085
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050103/msgs/437180.html