Posted by bleauberry on January 28, 2012, at 8:09:32
In reply to lamictal or nortriptaline, posted by B2chica on January 27, 2012, at 10:30:05
It is going to be very difficult for any med to break through the clutter of all the other meds in the cocktail. And if you are still depressed, then obviously the current meds need to be re-examined. I personally do not see any sense in taking meds that don't work, but that's just me.
If you are determined to keep the current cocktail going for whatever reason and add something else to it, then of the choices you listed I would go with Nortriptyline. I doubt seriously lamictal will offer anything except more side effects and problems. Nortriptyline at least has a decent chance of synergizing well with pristiq.....pristiq is almost pure serotonon, while nortriptyline would take care of the norepinephrine side of things, a nice blanket strategy that you currently do not have in place.
For people who do get better on nortriptyline, it is not unusual to see it still working years later. Lamictal is a different story. In clinical studies it was good only up to 9 months max (if it worked at all). The summary claim for it is something like this, 'delays but does not prevent future depressive episodes'. Personally, find someone who can say lamictal has been wonderful and is still working great after 3 years, and I will drop my jaw. I'm sure it must happen, I've just never seen it here in over 10 years and that to me is a fairly decent yardstick.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1008554
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120120/msgs/1008610.html