Posted by wishingstar on December 13, 2006, at 9:18:59
In reply to Re: feeling worse with med changes, posted by stargazer on December 12, 2006, at 23:20:15
Thank you for your detailed response. I was mostly convinced it was the birth control and I had done this to myself by fooling with it, not my psych drugs.
Yes, you were correct - I am only on lithium and lamictal at this point. As for why... I think my psychiatrist just didnt know what else to try. In the last few years, I have tried lots of drugs.. lets see.. zoloft, prozac, wellbutrin (twice), effexor, celexa, and lexapro.. and none have had any effect at all, even at high doses. I have never been on an MAO drug. We did discuss emsam (is that right), the patch, but I'm told it's very expensive and my health insurance may or may not cover it.. theyre very finicky with these things.
I actually did get a little relief from lithium, especially at 600mgs. I had passing moments where I felt better than I remember feeling in a long time. But the tradeoff was that I also had incredible anxiety and the first panic attacks of my life, and was very irritable. 300 seems to help a little, although by now I'm sort of unsure where the baseline would truly be without medication. It's possible it isnt helping. I definitely dont feel great. I think when lithium helped though, that is what led my doctor to add lamictal. Originally he had talked about using lithium only to augment an AD, as you mentioned, but since we havent found an AD that works, here we are.
I started the 50mg lamictal last night. I'm going to watch myself carefully and if I seem to take a dive even further into depression, I will call my doctor. My next appointment isnt until Jan 4. Thanks for the headsup on the balance issue - I am a very petite person (around 100lbs) so these doses can get pretty heavy for me sometimes.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
poster:wishingstar
thread:713000
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061212/msgs/713209.html