Posted by med_empowered on October 2, 2005, at 16:03:18
In reply to Social anxiety, posted by Blackbird on October 2, 2005, at 15:16:36
Hey! There are **lots** of options for social anxiety. Standard practice lately seems to be giving an SSRI first; a benzo is used if the anxiety is severe or has proven treatment-resistant (to an SSRI). But...MAOIs are good; they're just not first-line in most cases...I imagine most docs would prefer to give Klonopin or something before an MAOI b/c of the potential complications. Modafinil can work from a stimulant angle, but a lot of docs still seem to buy into the stimulant=anxious, sedative=calm theory of anxiety...its way oversimplified, as anyone who has anxiety can tell you, but...it persists nonetheless. Buspar is a worth while add-on for some people; if it works, it can be very helpful...on the other hand, the side-effects can suck and it doesn't help everyone, and it takes a couple weeks to start working full-strength. The tricyclics are an option but...if you can take an SSRI, or Effexor, Remeron, or Cymbalta, you might want to try one of those first; tricyclics can be kind of hardcore in terms of side-effects. Mood-stabilizers help some people...trileptal, keppra, etc. can help with anxiety. In my experience...its not that great. Overall anxiety levels go down a bit, but at the dosages required for an anxiolytic effect, drug-induced stupidity becomes a big problem. Anyway, good luck, and please do keep us all posted.
poster:med_empowered
thread:561978
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050927/msgs/561990.html