Posted by Racer on April 30, 2006, at 12:48:29
In reply to Tricyclics Revisited (desipramine, nortriptyline), posted by circusboy on April 30, 2006, at 12:08:27
Much more interesting than tedious, and welcome back.
I've tried both desipramine and nortriptyline, and also Prozac, Strattera, Ritalin, and Cymbalta --did you mention any others? -- so I'll make a few notes of my own experience with them...
Nortriptyline was great for my depression, first one I'd ever taken, truly a miracle drug for me. At the cost of decent sleep, a 70 pound weight gain (the doctor said I was just eating too much), chronic constipation that didn't clear up for years after I stopped taking it, and living in a fog the entire time I was on it. Which is why I wouldn't take it again, but it was truly, hands down, a necessary and life saving AD for me. I tried desipramine, but had a hypotensive reaction to it -- which it's not supposed to do, but I seem to be an outlier on sensitivity to blood pressure effects from TCAs. The other TCAs I've tried were all much worse -- 25mg of Sinequan had me holding on to furniture in order to walk.
Cymbalta? Meh.
(What? You don't think that covers it? I was on it nearly a year and a half. Trust me -- it says all I need to say on the subject ;-D )
I quite liked Strattera, actually. It didn't cause any of the difficulties I have had in the past, and I felt cognitively alert. The adverse effects I had on it were mostly mentrual -- which were VERY disconcerting, let me tell you! -- so I doubt they'd be much of an issue for you... I was on it with Prozac, though, and was very fidgetty, and anxious, which I think now was probably the Prozac. Dunno, though, since I haven't tried ti again. For what it's worth, though, I would try it again without a qualm, and probably will once we get past the whole baby-making thing. (It's something weird like Category C.75 -- not quite Category D, but it wants to be.)
But, have you tried Wellbutrin? I know that it's said to increase anxiety if that's an issue, and I will say that it does increase my *energy* in a bad way -- not the kind of energy that gets things done, just the energy that gets anxiety kicked up. If I can focus the energy into something physical, I'm fine, and feel better than the average bear. It's just that that isn't always my first response to that feeling... {heheheh...} What I've found on it, though, is that it relieves my depression enough that the nasty parts of anxiety aren't a problem. And honestly? The high level of background anxiety I live with is basically a personality thing. There's no official "Anxious Personality Disorder," and I'm not sure I think it's solely a personality disorder thing, I just think it's the way I'm wired. And the background stuff I can tune out. The Wellbutrin pretty well stops the ruminations, the thoughts racing in circles, etc, that get me to the point of giving up.
Oh, and Dexedrine helps me, too, with a lot of that... (Ritalin produced three adverse effects: headaches, feeling high, and increased appetite. I could have stuck out the headache and feeling high, since I kinda figured those would probably fade after the adjustment phase. But the increased appetite, combined with the decreased inhibitions from feeling high -- that I couldn't handle. I was too freaked out about that, panicking because I felt so out of control. Sadly, Ritalin was MUCH more effective than any of the other stimulants I tried for mood brightening and calming the cognitive firestorm.)
Too much information, huh? HOpe something in there helped.
poster:Racer
thread:638384
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060429/msgs/638397.html