Posted by Bill LL on April 26, 2005, at 8:19:02
In reply to THE INFAMOUS EFFEXOR, posted by bart on April 25, 2005, at 10:08:40
Bart- The phenomenom that you describe about feeling good for a few days after stopping an antidepressant is very common. Unfortunately, as you know, it doesn't last long.
I like this link from Stanford University psychiatrists:
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~mood/treatment.htm#switch_treatments
Here is one of the portions: "Q. If an antidepressant has produced a partial response, but has not fully eliminated depression, what can be done about it?
There are many techniques to help an antidepressant work more completely. The simplest is to increase the dose until relief is experienced or side- effects are severe. If the dose can not be increased, lithium can be added to any antidepressant to augment its effect. With all antidepressants it is possible to add small doses of stimulants such as pemoline (Cylert), methylphenidate (Ritalin), or dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) to augment the antidepressant effect. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors often work better when small doses of desipramine (Norpramin) or nortriptyline (Aventyl and Pamelor) are co-administered. Thyroid hormones (Synthroid or Cytomel) may be used to augment any antidepressant. At times combinations of these techniques may be utilized."Also, another section says that often to be effective, the dosage of AD's must be much higher than the starting dose. When I took Celexa, the starting dose was 20 mg, but I needed 60 to feel good.
> I just don't what the next move is. I can certainly talk with doc but I just want to see if anybody relates.
>
> I believe my brain is "burned out" or pooped out on all ssri's. After about year 3, AD's just didn't have an effective time span beyond several months.
> Now at year 5, every time I've switched meds, and being on Effexor XR now, the same damn thing occurs after just a few months, which is this:
> I quickly just start feeling worse, more OCD symptoms, tiredness, teeth grinding, fitful sleep, and then the one day when I notice this and do not take a capsule one particular day, I suddenly feel much more together and fluid once the medication is out of my system. But then I doomed to continue taking at least some of the medication in order to avoid withdrawal.
>
> WHAT TO DO? MAYBE ASK TO BE SWITCH TO A TCA OR SOME OTHER CLASS OF DRUG?
poster:Bill LL
thread:489201
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050423/msgs/489703.html