Posted by Tony P on September 23, 2008, at 14:24:59
Does anyone have any experience in substituting Reboxetine for Effexor or Cymbalta, e.g. relative dose/ potency?
I have been on Cymbalta 60 mg/day + Remeron 30 mg/night for several months & became concerned both re continuing weight gain and (I thought) liver pain one night. As I am between pdocs and am having trouble getting in to see my MD, I tapered the Cymbalta to 30 mg./day & started to cut it out altogether (but didn't in the end, just skipped a few days).
To substitute for the lower Cymbalta I tried various meds & supplements, including Reboxetine (Ne agonist) 8 mg/day, SAMe oral .4 - 1.2/day, 5-HTP 100 mg/day, Selegeline 5-10 mg (only on days I took no Cymbalta).
The most consistent one I kept up was the Reboxetine @ 8 mg/day. However, I got progressively more depressed over about 2-3 weeks, started isolating, sleeping a lot, missing commitments etc.
Does anyone have experience with coming off Cymbalta (or Effexor which I presume would be similar) and substituting Reboxetine? The latter is not an ideal solution if I do have to stop the Cymbalta as it's not available in Canada so I'd have to import -- expensive & chancy.
However, apart from the supplements, and Selegeline which is risky in combination, about the only other possibilities are Effexor, which I found gave me very high mid-day anxiety (fairly short trial -- 3 months?), and Cipralex/Lexapro, which was very low in S/E but didn't give me the boost in energy that Cymbalta did.
I'm also wondering if my depression/apathy/hypersomnia in the past week or so might be because I'm taking Seroquel every night (25-50 mg) instead of just occasionally.
Any suggestions?? I see my MD Thursday, if I can force myself out of bed....
Tony P
poster:Tony P
thread:853657
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/853657.html