Posted by g_g_g_unit on July 21, 2012, at 8:52:12
Since my psychiatrist wasn't really familiar with using MAOIs for OCD, I e-mailed the head of Yale's OCD department and he said he usually keeps patients on an MAOI for 3 months before giving up.
I've been on Parnate for 5 months now, though he was referring to the maximum dose, not overall titration period. Technically, I've only been on 60mg for 5 weeks.
Anyway, I wasn't really finding 60mg helpful - quite agitating, and my mood was quite flat/listless during the day (though I'm not sure how much the 1.5mg Klonopin I take at night contributes to that).
So I cut back to 50mg for a week and experienced the worst crying/suicidal episodes etc. I was kinda down on 60mg, but at least my mood was even, I guess.
Anyway, since Parnate isn't doing much for anxiety or depression, my psych was thinking of taking me off it, but I have a really stressful time coming up over the next 4 weeks and at the very least it gets me out of bed, doing stuff. So he figured I stay on it for that period and at least then, after 9 weeks, we'd have a better idea of whether anything positive might happen.
So he's suggested I add in an extra dose of Klonopin in the morning (0.5mg) to see if it helps the daytime agitation.
He said he didn't think the difference between 50 and 60mg would be much, but I don't know. I'm still on 50mg now and wondering if I should just go back to 60mg and see if it's tolerable with the Klonopin. I wasn't sure if the crying etc. on 50mg was a result of withdrawal, or just an insufficient dose (since too much DA/NE, not enough SE tends to have that effect on me).
Again, I also think the Klonopin itself makes things kinda worse .. I don't know if 1.5mg is a lot, but ideally I'd like to try cut back.
poster:g_g_g_unit
thread:1021887
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120718/msgs/1021887.html