Posted by med_empowered on June 3, 2005, at 2:48:02
In reply to Re: seroquel » yesac, posted by SLS on June 2, 2005, at 21:01:39
Zyprexa is the reigning champ of the antipsychotic world, so it makes sense that its the #1 in terms of antidepressant augmentation (in terms of usage, not necessarily therapeutic benefit). Low-dose Abilify (7.5mgs; then 10) helped with my depression A LOT, while the higher doses caused more problems than I would have liked, and also seemed to lose the anti-depressant benefit...this seems to be true with many people; you have to hit just the right dose to find benefit, as going too high or low causes problems. I think Risperdal is kinda rough in terms of side-effects, so I'd personally opt for Abilify, Geodon, or seroquel. Geodon has qTC interval heart weirdness, so one might want to avoid it if there's a history of cardiovascular problems and/or other drugs involved, like Tricyclics, also have cardiovascular effects. Seroquel is pretty benign in terms of side effects for most people, and the anti-insomnia benefit is a major plus. Another one I think might become more popular, because of new research and cost effectiveness, is amoxapine, which is marketed as Asendin. Its a tricyclic antidepressant, but its also similar to Loxapine, a conventional anti-psychotic that seems to have an "atypical" structure; in fact, some shrinks consider loxapine to be the first atypical antipsychotic. Anyway, amoxapine does double duty as an anti-psychotic/anti-depressant in one med, so its great for psychotic depression and some caes of treatment resistant depression. I read somewhere that, when it works (about 70% of the time, like most ADs) 80% of those for whom it works find that it works fast--from 4 to 14 days. Low-dose loxapine itself seems promising as a cheap, effective way to augment antidepressants.
poster:med_empowered
thread:506074
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050601/msgs/507216.html