Posted by rtcstudio on June 24, 2011, at 10:37:34
Thank you for any help - My wife's desipramine levels are mysteriously dropping.
She has been steady and well for a long time on her current meds. We see a psychiatrist/psychopharmacologist every 6 mos to check her maintenence.
Over last 2 weeks her symptoms of anxiety/depression returned culminating with a panic attack on this past Saturday. Monday, we had bloodwork done to check levels.
All was okay except desipramine which showed an almost 50% drop. The blood level that has worked wonderfully for her for years is between 250 and 300 (I know this is high by the book, but her doc says that 5% of patients do well on a level that is higher or lower than the statistical window). On Monday, the blood drawn showed a level of 153. Thinking this was a mistake, we had the desipramine test done again. Blood drawn on Wednesday showed a further drop with a level of 128. Within 2 days the level had dropped 25 points.
She is showing clear signs of having practically stopped taking the desipramine. We are seeing her regular physician on Monday to see if there could be an underlying physical cause, but what could target desipramine selectively??
Her thyroid was good, estrogen was good, tegretol was good. She had a urinary tract infection about three weeks ago and took antibiotics, but we've never seen what is happening now.
Thank you for any help, suggestions! I'm desperate!
poster:rtcstudio
thread:989304
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110619/msgs/989304.html