Posted by Four Feathers on August 19, 2008, at 17:47:12
I have been reading this board for years and occassionally thrown out a post when I have had questions and have always been thankful for the information all on this board share. As we often hear of negative experiences with medications, which it seems almost all of us have had at some point, I wanted to share my positive experience so far with Nardil.
After about 10 years on the med merry go round with limited success, and plenty of poor side effects, I began seeing a new pdoc last fall. His first recommendation to me was Nardil. At the time I had read so much negativity about the MAOIs that I was frankly afraid to go this route, especially the possibility of HT crisis. Insted I continued with the SSRIs and threw in Strattera for some of the concentratoin problems I was experiencing. Needless to say, these did nothing more for me than the others in the past. After much research, reassurance from my pdoc, and consideration I decided to start Nardil a little over three weeks ago.
BTW...the main symptoms I was looking to treat were dysthymia, physical anxious feelings (including high BP), decreased concentration, hypersomnia, decreased sex drive, apathy, and a touch of minor social phobia.
I am happy to say that the Nardil has been AMAZING! While the first week was tough, and I was very tempted to give up at times, I cannot express how thankful I am that I finally began this med. I now feel a sense of calmness within my body that I have not felt since I was a child, I care about things again and have motivation to do them, can concentrate, regained my self-confidence, feel completely comfortable in public, and actually have seen an increse in my libido since starting this. There have been no negative sexual side effects for me on this med which I cannot say about many of the others in teh past. I have achieved all of this at 30mg of Nardil daily (15 morning/15 evening). BTW...I began conservatively at 7.5mg morning and evening for the first 4 days before going to my current. The big effects were recognized about 10 days in at 30mg daily.
A quick recap of positive and negative effects to date: the first week I went through feelings of almost panic attacks (which I have had only a handful of in my life), flu-like symptoms, no appetite, and extreme dizziness which came and went. I noticed a sense of internal "calmness" that was awesome about 4 days in. I then noticed some increased motivation. Even though I felt like crap a few days it was nice to see some initial positive reactions. I was VERY nervous about everything that I put in my mouth for fear of a food reaction. I noticed these same effects when I went from 15mg daily to 30mg daily and felt a bit more "wiped out" and just wanted to lay around for a couple of days.
I tolerated the side effects and I am very happy that I did. As stated above, I now feel like I am regaining my life. While I understand that it is early in the Nardil treatment and there is often a feeling of hypomania associated with this med, I am hopeful that I am experiencing the real effects and that they last. My pdoc, who takes Nardil himself, has told me that he expects the effects to continue to improve over the next 3-6 weeks, albeit maybe not as pronounced as I what I have seen so far.
The diet restrictions to me have been nothing so far. When first staring I was incredibly nervous to eat or drink anything that could remotely contain large amounts of tyramine. Now, partly thanks to the Nardil I feel, my anxiety level around food is next to nothing. I have been trying things in moderation to determine any possible effects, and have yet to find any. I feel that the side effects of this med are substantially less than any other AD I have been on in the past, and the positive effects have been substantially greater.
To those of you considering or beginning Nardil, I will echo what others have said on this board "give it a shot", I am so glad that I did!
I should also mention that I have seen the anticipated decrease in BP and my pdoc anticipates that I will be able to stop the lisinopril due to the reduction we have seen so far.
4F
poster:Four Feathers
thread:847257
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080814/msgs/847257.html