Posted by Girlnterrupted78 on September 9, 2009, at 14:34:04
In reply to Re: Should I switch from Parnate?, posted by Ezrahite on September 8, 2009, at 16:11:38
> 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.Well, I'm very sorry to hear this. Doesn't sound like a pleasant experience to go through. Today I saw my pdoc and asked him about this specifically. He responded that he's never seen someone get "worse" on Parnate. He's had people not respond, or respond just halfway, but has never seen someone get worse. Then his theory was that (he might be wrong about this, since we don't have your info) that you might have recently discontinued another med, which was helping to some extent, and now that it's washed out completely, it's causing your severe depression. Could this be the case?
> 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.
Yes, this doesn't seem right. These side effects you're describing are terrible and so different from everything me and others are getting. I get hypotension rather than hypertension, and shortness of breathe, in addition to seeping problems.
> 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.Would you mind telling me where you're located? Thanks. Maybe I could help in some way.
> 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.I had a similar experience to yours, but with Nardil. It did nothing for me. It made me slow-thinking, I'd forget words, I was bad socially, and I didn't feel any antidepressant effects. It also gave me an occipital headache when I reached 90mgs, and a blush when I was at 75mgs. I gained 25lbs in a year on Nardil.
The only reason I stayed on it for a whole year was because I wanted to give it a fair trial and at the time it seemed like my last resort.
I tried every dose, for enough periods of time, and I wanted to augment it. That's where things went wrong. My pdoc at the time refused to augment it, so I stayed even longer while looking for a new pdoc who would augment. But in the meantime my weight got to a point where I could not take it anymore, so I discontinued the med.But see, this is after a whole year trial, which is what I gave Nardil. And I still regret not having augmented it. Who knows what would have happened?
Best of luck and I hope it will give you some benefit.
poster:Girlnterrupted78
thread:916036
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/916202.html