Posted by john anderton on August 17, 2006, at 18:31:20
Hi everyone: This will be a bit long winded so I am hopeful that some of you will take the time! I would sincerely appreciate your help!
I have been treated for GAD for nine years now. I have had four major bouts of GAD/depression breakout all in the late fall and in the years 97', 00', 03' 05'. I have been treated with the following drugs...Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, and currently Effexor at 75mg's.
What I have noticed over the years is that the AD's seem to blast me out of the depression but I will continue to have episodes every few months that last a week or two. The feelings include feelings include suicidal thoughts, agitation, depressed but jumpy at the some time etc. Almost like a mixed state.
As a test last summer after enduring one of my nasty bouts while on 20 mg's of Lexapro, I decided to stop taking my medication. What followed was the obvious 6 weeks of horrible discontinuation. However, once I got through that I was stable with only minor blips that occured every two months or so up until the beginning of last December, where I tumbled back down into an anxious depressive state. I went back on the Lexapro and it did not do anything. We tried to add 600 mg's of Lithium and that only gave me horrible lower back pain. My doc said it was unfortunate because he believes in Lithium and that we had not gotten to a therapuetic dose. We quit both those and moved to Effexor this past April. I immediately felt better. For one month I felt out of this world good. No anxiety, no dpression, I was back!!! The just like that I tumbled back into waxing and waning since. We added Lamictal at my request as I have been researching Cyclothymia and I have been on ot for 5 weeks and I am currently at 37.5 mg's. We are moving slowly to avoid the rash.
My doctor (who is a renowned Psychopharmacologist in Southern Cal) still feels it is GAD with some depression thrown in. He said I definately do not have BP I or BP2, but I may have a low grade cyclothymia. He said he is unsure becasue the symptoms are not monster sized as in a terrible case of GAD or true manic depression. Well I can tell you....suicidal thoughts to me are not small and I hate them. I
I am an otherwise healthy 28 year old guy. I am a very successful broker, maintain a good partnership at work, own a nice home, am happily married, etc...from the outside nobody would ever know Im suffering...in fact they might say Im living the dream!
My questions are these:
Do you think I should just go back to Effexor and up the dose? Is it that I just need more AD?
Should I up the Lamictal and back off the Effexor? Since I did well for 6 months last year...is it not reasonable to think the AD's are speeding up my problem?
at 37.5 mg's should I be getting an antidepressant response from Lamictal or will that happen at a higher does?
I am so frustrated!
Im really stuck here...my gut tells me im cyclothymic...but very confused and really would like some advice!
poster:john anderton
thread:677497
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060810/msgs/677497.html