Posted by bleauberry on March 26, 2009, at 19:27:49
In reply to Depakote for Anxiety Instead Of Benzos????, posted by Phillipa on March 23, 2009, at 15:42:55
Well Phillipa, the next best thing to having an awesome LLMD is to know someone who is seeing one and learning from one.
You would never guess which med it is that my LLMD finds very useful in his clinical practice for a wide range of things including pain, fatigue, sleep, anxiety, and even depression. You would never guess in a million years.
It is not mentioned here often. When it is, it doesn't get rave reviews. Clinical studies are rather ho-hum.
But in his practice with patients very much like you and me, the med that is so often very helpful is...Gabapentin (Neurontin)...with a catch...it has to be brand and not generic.
So while you surf every day looking for the next greatest thing, most of which you don't have access to getting, Gabapentin fills the bill perfectly. That is something you could get fairly easily from any of your doctors. The difficult part would be getting the brand and not generic. You would have to request the doctor to write "medically necessary" on the prescription when specififying no generic substitutes.
Of the antidepressants, the ones he has the most success with are Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and sometimes Prozac.
I wonder what would happen if you did a straight across swap to brand Zoloft from Luvox? Or, how about brand Luvox?
In any case, put Gabapentin at the very top of your list. It is commonly used in Lyme, MS, bipolar, fibromyalgia, anxiety, insomnia, pain, and all the mysterious stuff you and me deal with. This suggestion is not based on science or my own personal opinion. It is based on what actually works with significant reliability in a real LLMD's practice.
poster:bleauberry
thread:886687
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090322/msgs/887141.html