Posted by med_empowered on December 8, 2006, at 18:28:55
In reply to Re: Tricyclics » lymom3, posted by Quintal on December 8, 2006, at 14:17:43
I didn't really like Tofranil. With Adderall, it did act quickly (2 weeks or so) to diminish symptoms, but even w/ the adderall I had weight gain and sedation, and the side effects got to be intolerable. Plus, after the 2 weeks of fairly rapid improvement, I kind of hit a plateau of not-quite-so depressed.
I hear Surmontil is good stuff, especially if you cant sleep..its kind of clozapine-ish, so if you've responded well to low dose atypicals, you might like it. If you hate neuroleptics..you migth want to leave it alone. It can actually improve the quality of sleep; most ADs suppress REM sleep.
Asendin is a classic for psychotic depression and treatment-resistant depression. The problem, of course, is that its basically a neuroleptic (loxapine-ish) w/ some AD properties, so you have the whole EPS/TD thing to contend with. But..in some depressed people, there have been rapid improvements. If it worked, I imagine you could stabilize and find something to switch over to. Also, antioxidants might be used to prevent TD--you can do a google on that.
Although I hated TCA+adderall, that kind of combo can be very, very powerful in people who respond to those meds, but partially...they play off each other to boost concentrations of both amphetamine and TCA in the brain and blood. Can be tricky, but potentially quite helpful. An MAOI+TCA combo can be helpful for some people; an MAOI+TCA+stimulant combo can also be helpful (although I think it would be easier to try out MAOI+stim or TCA+stim).
Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:711506
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061206/msgs/711653.html