Posted by bleauberry on April 13, 2012, at 7:29:01
In reply to advice needed, posted by Tusco on April 9, 2012, at 14:54:12
Before I talk about meds, or before you move forward with any more meds, I think you would be wise to take a look at rhodiola rosea first. It stands a decent chance of being an excellent antidepressant for you. In a worst case scenario if it isn't magical, it will at a minimum set the stage for everything else you try to work better.
Nortriptyline is a good choice, but only if combined with an ssri, first choice zoloft second choice prozac. It's the balanced serotonin vs norepinephrine mechanism you want....which has been missing from every other med you've tried. Another excellent choice would be Savella straight up.
Here's something most doctors don't see. If the side effects are too much, guess what, the dose is too high! Duhh. In their generally accepted practices, only normal doses stated in literature can be therapeutic, right? That is wrong. Even tiny miniscule doses can work great....but then not great when increased to a normal dose. Before abandoning any med due to side effects, I think it is important to first try it at really small doses....much less than the starting dose....just to see what happens. At a dose where things are tolerable it allows the time necessary to have the med make some brain adjustments. If the low dose thing turns out to not be promising, then the only other choice is to switch meds completely. Hey I got very bad sexual side effects from all the ssris but only mimimum minor side effects from prozac....so it's hard to predict.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1015262
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120411/msgs/1015510.html