Posted by zeugma on February 15, 2005, at 16:50:32
In reply to Re: nothing like a sedating TCA for anxiety/panic » Sarah T., posted by KaraS on February 15, 2005, at 1:44:29
TCA's are hard to combine with stimulants. both can cause tachycardia, and the combination can be very dangerous. You can't combine TCA's with Wellbutrin at all because WB acts like Paxil on your liver enzymes: i.e. it slows down the TCA metabolism to a crawl and you can unintentionally overdose on 25 mg of desipramine.
the one stim that is safe with TCA's is Provigil, which, after a failed Strattera retrial, I am now retrying, out of some desperation, because I have a job in which it is imperative to stay fully awake (ha). early investigators were amazed by Provigil's lack of peripheral s/e, on heart rate and so forth. With my luck, though, I'm afraid it will speed my heart rate like Ritalin did, although I combined Provigil with 100 mg nortrip over the summer with no such consequences.
I know kara can't take provigil because of weird side effects, and I had weird s/e too, but I'm rather desperate, and the s/e were not of a cardiac nature, as they would be with any other stim/TCA combination. And unlike kara, the drug worked for me. the side effects were the problem. I suppose the dilemma we all face is that we can either take drugs that might as well be placebos far all their therapeutic effect, or wade through side effects that would daunt any sane person. I think I'm sane, and I'm hardly dauntless, but I also have to earn a living, and I can't very well do that when I'm half asleep all the time.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:455142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050212/msgs/458302.html