Posted by Philip N. on September 30, 2006, at 11:20:56
In reply to Re: Returning to antidepressants? Above for, posted by SLS on September 30, 2006, at 10:27:59
Hey Scott. My last 2 years I was on Lexapro and it did seem to work throughout that time. My doctor (saw her yesterday) and I are thinking of reinstuting therapy with Prozac as I may want to try a slow taper if successful (long taper). My only rationale in that is from what I've read about Prozac withdrawal vs the other SSRIs. Even though I don't recall any severe withdrawals when I stopped back in December I really didn't know enough to be looking for them. My fear now is that if I start on something like Effexor (which my doctor would have preferred), it will add to the burden down line if I feel I am strong enough to stop again.
So much of this has been a jungle for me. Many studies claim the benefits of the medicines while the opposite warn of the dangers. I don't know what a person can do otherwise when your *ss is against the floor!
I have taken them for 9 years without much thought until this period in my life. I think the main thing for me know is to think as much of my family as I am myself. I have a checkered past all my life of stessful events and coping skills. When the ADs came along I truly felt that it was a step in the right direction. And it may be that I am having to come to grips with what is common for many others, that our Depressive natures don't fade away. I would like to think that they could but alot of the data points in the opposite. I've been giving this a good fight and it may be that after all this time I'm not programmed to deal with normalcy without the medicine.
I've also learned that my way of stopping the medicine is highly unrecommende after such long use. I don't know if a long taper would have made any difference in relation to where I'm at now or not. I'm wondering if we adapt at all by going to an absolute minimum dose and staying there for some time? Or it could be that any amount of an SSRI keeps our psyche running off of it. I never questioned this before and it may prove fruitless anyway.
Most of what I read says that a third major depression should be treated from 3-5 years and after that you can pretty much expect a 90% relapse rate. Not very encouraging if you've had this stuff in life (I think the 1st round is 9 months with a 25% chance at relapse and a second is 18 months with a 50% chance of relapse).
Does anyone really know from the science what effect these medicines have on the nuerotransmitters physically. I've read that untreated depression will start to harm the brain and everything else too so what would be the argument for staying in a bout and holding out hope of some turning point? It seems that either way we are going to be challenged to do someting.
Do you think the Prozac rationale makes any sense? I started out on it in the beginning and it seemed alright from what I can remember from those days! Thank You.....let me know
poster:Philip N.
thread:689668
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060809/msgs/690513.html