Posted by 4WD on April 17, 2008, at 18:14:04
Ihave been on Nadil 45mg for six weeks now and it has already changed my life. The depression isn't always completely gone but there is so much difference. I am doing stuff like cleaning out the refrigerator and working in the garden.
I am still experiencing some side effects which pretty much kicked in when the Nardil did. Constipation, fluctuating blood pressure, dry mouth and insomnia. I go to sleep okay but wake at 3, 4, 5 and 6. Some mornings I just go ahead and get up. At first, I was going to bed at 11and waking up at 1:30 and not being able to go back to sleep. But a doctor (an older guy who used to prescribe Nardil a lot) suggested that I take my last dose of Nardil by 3pm and that has helped.
The scaredness hasn't gotten any better, however. I have had to raise my dose of Valium to 20mg a day and most days, I am still scared even after taking 10mg in the morning and 10mg in the afternoon. I am also taking 1.5mg Klonopin a day - .75 in the morning and .75 in the afternoon. I am using the Valium to taper off the Klonopin. I knokw the extra scaredness isn't from that though because it started before I lowered the dose the last time. Just this week I went from 2mg Klonopin a day to 1.5mg per day. But the extra scaredness started several days before that.
It's worth all the side effects though. I feel like I have my life back. If this is how I feel at 6 weeks, imagine how I'll feel at 10 weeks.
The older doctor who used to prescribe Nardil a lot told me something very interesting. In fact, he read it to me from the PDR. It said that once complete remission has been achieved on Nardil, the dosage should be lowered slowly by one pill a day over a period of time. It even said that you should go as low as one pill a day or even one every other day and the Nardil would still maintain it's efficacy. I don't think I'd go to one pill every other day but it's exciting to think that after I've achieved complete remission, I can go down to 30mg a day instead of 45. Maybe that will lessen the side effects. And then if I don't feel depression creeping back in, I'll try going to 15 mg a day.
Anyway, I am so excited and happy to have my life back. As some others here have said, I wish I had tried Nardil sooner. Instead of continuing 4 years on the SSRI/SNRI merry-go-round. I'm lucky to have a pdoc who is willing to prescribe an MAOI.
I've ordered a medic alert bracelet that says I'm on on MAOI and that I have hypotension. I was in Walmart the other day and felt faint and lightheaded. I checked my blood pressure at the pharmacy and it was 85/55. I have started sipping salt water periodically during the day to try to combat the hypotension. But then one day, my BP went up to 135/65. So I'll have to find the right balance. I was drinking two pints of salty water every day. I've gone down to one pint of less salty water a day now. We'll see how that works.
Just wanted to bring you all up to date on my Nardil experience. It's a miracle drug as far as I'm concerned.
Marsha
poster:4WD
thread:823866
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080412/msgs/823866.html