Posted by blueberry on May 5, 2006, at 17:12:11
In reply to experiences with lexapro causing insomnia, posted by verbena on May 5, 2006, at 9:41:15
I also have trouble with sleep and lexapro 5mg to 10mg made sleep very troublesome the whole 3 months I was on it. It improved my anxiety about 70% and by depression only 10%.
I doubt a higher dose will help your depression and loss of interest. It would probably just numb you out more and make loss of interest worse. Mileage does vary from person to person though. Clinical studies showed that generally higher doses were no more effective than 10mg.
Another medication or supplement that targets norepinephrine or dopamine would probably help a lot more than boosting serotonin more.
As a quick experiment you could buy some of the cheap natural amino acid tyrosine which converts to dopamine and norepinephrine, take 250mg in the morning on an empty stomach and 250mg at lunch. If you don't feel anything, try 500mg twice the next day. It could make sleep even worse, maybe not, but at least it would give you a very quick idea of whether going in the norepinephrine/dopamine direction will help, without having to go through various difficult expensive time consuming medication trials.
If it does help, you can get an even better effect by buying a broad based amino acid supplement with 20 aminos in it that includes tyrosine and phenylalanine. Experimentation would be needed to find the right dose. Some people do well on 4grams a day while others need 40grams.
Sleep...that's another issue. Lunesta maybe? Ambien maybe? Remeron maybe? Seroquel or zyprexa definitely work, but I would save them for hard-core last. Or naturally, combine any or all of these...gaba, taurine, glycine, magnesium.
poster:blueberry
thread:640228
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060504/msgs/640353.html