Posted by JahL on August 24, 2006, at 8:11:16
In reply to Re: Are antipsychotics good for depression??? » Frequent Fryer, posted by JahL on August 23, 2006, at 20:37:02
OK, there a couple of good success stories above - and I'm obviously *very* - sincerely - pleased for the beneficiaries. I haven't really been around here much lately so maybe I'm a little behind the times.
Having thought about it some more, I do actually recall my own AP (relative) success story (besides Sulpiride).
Upon initiation of 20mg Abilify (which has powerful 5HT action), I enjoyed a *very* significant early onset improvement. Unfortunately I had to abandon it because of near unbearable akathesia and constipation. The latter sounds trivial, but not when you haven't been for a whole MONTH (seriously). I was later able to obtain some hardcore laxatives but second time round the improvement was much less profound and petered out after a couple of weeks. [sorry if the above is a little graphic!]
As is pointed out above, APs are often accompanied by unpleasant side effects, which are, variously, movement disorders (especially the older APs which should be a treatment of *last resort*), diabetes, weight gain, somnolence, akathesia etc.
As with most things in life, I think it comes down to simple risk:benefit anaysis. I.E. The risks typical to the drug and the severity of your depression (risk = self-harm etc) vs. the degree of benefit you derive from said drug.
Up until two days ago I had been profoundly suicidal my entire life and so I was prepared to take almost anything that worked. An efficacious drug is quite literally a life-saver for me.
Just wanted to acknowledge the experiences described in the above posts. I'll get more sleep (only 1 hour yesterday) before I post next time...
Take care,
Jah.
poster:JahL
thread:679424
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060818/msgs/679585.html