Posted by Ezrahite on September 8, 2009, at 16:11:38
In reply to Re: Should I switch from Parnate? » Ezrahite, posted by Girlnterrupted78 on September 8, 2009, at 4:02:57
Thanks for the reply!
> Do you feel more depressed/angry & frustrated than before starting Parnate, or just the same?
Moreso than before. It's hard for me to compare mental states over time, but I did notice when I was on 20 mg that suddenly I was falling more easily into a bleak hopeless pit and struggling more to get out, and having a slow burning anger about everything and everyone. It's at 30 and 40 mg that I noticed the increasing difficulty with expressing myself or even finding something to say.
> You should try to spread the doses, then. Are you getting any hypotension? Or you're just getting high blood pressure?
I never have had any hypotension. Just the high blood pressure - it feels like my heart is beating harder and slower. On 30 mg it was 182/80. I can feel it in my head, sometimes in my whole body. When I was taking 30 mg once a day, or 20 mg doses less than eight hours apart, after a few days of that I had a dull achiness in my head like I'd sneezed too hard. It seems unhealthy.
I think I'm spreading doses as much as I can. I have always had trouble dealing with twice a day, let alone eight or ten. Also, other people have tried it, and had worse side effects.
> And if your doctor refuses to treat your TRD by increasing the dose, then switch docs. You can't let one doctor decide your fate.
I can't switch docs. It's gotten very difficult to get a University clinic psychiatrist, and that's all my insurance allows. Anyway, she's not a bad doctor, not many are willing to work with Parnate to start with.
> I only ever had 1 AD work, while everything else failed. I also have TRD. Now I'm on Parnate and I'm giving it a FULL TRIAL. I'm on my 3rd week now. I noticed an improvement within the first 2 weeks. And I noticed another improvement when my doctor augmented with 5mg Adderall. And my doctor won't stop until I am on remission, so we will add anything we can to Parnate.
I'm sorry if I seem down on Parnate. It works wonders for a lot of people. I know that it sometimes gets worse at a lower dose before getting better. But since I don't see problems getting better, only worse, I don't have much hope it will work at a dose I can take.
One reason I tried Parnate was thinking that I might be lacking in neurotransmitters, and Parnate is pretty much the ultimate in making more of them available. Now I doubt that's the case; and when I look at all the supplements I've taken to raise their levels, they never helped either.
Anyway my priorities have changed since I started taking Parnate. I need to be more able to participate and get things done - I can live with how I feel if I can do that.
I guess what I am looking for is other people's experiences that were similar to mine, and how they turned out in the long run. It would be stupid to jump ship if there were a decent chance of success. If not, now is especially not a good time to waste more time.
poster:Ezrahite
thread:916036
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/916113.html