Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 78203

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Other options than AD's for depression?

Posted by adamie on September 7, 2001, at 17:55:19


I have tried 4 ad's and 3 of them made me worse. effexor made constant mind torture, it was hard to even function. wellbutrin together with zyprexa was quite bad for me. 3 days ago I went on prozac. the first day on it I felt a horrible worsening effect, this was maybe 4 hours after taking the first 20mg dose. i was beggining to feel extremely horrible. I was crying for a few hours and feeling completely horrible, just trying to lay in bed to pass the time, trying to somehow go to sleep, i slept a tiny bit, afterwards it was 5 hours later and the absolutely horrible feelings have passed. so i thought maybe prozac can end up helping afterall but nope. just feeling too horrible the last few days including today. so i am stopping the medication. my mom said perhaps I would be better without meds. Of course I would be better without these but, I want to feel more than just pretty bad. in that non med state i can function a bit, very little mind torture but everything is hard to enjoy, little emotion, very severe inability to concentrate. i want more than that. so i want to try meds until something can work. until i try something that doesn't initially make my depression worse. if there is no worsening effect then deffinetly i would be able to actually complete a full trial.

so I was wondering what else can work for depression aside from anti depressants, anti phychotics, and stimulants. what other choices do i have and how do they work? I have read that anti convulsants can work if someone's depression is made worse by seratonin medications. but I'd like to know what else is out there.

my specific problem is caused by accutane. so my brain is filled with excessive vitamin A and generally my head feels very tight. when my depression is at it's worst i sometimes feel very hot on the sides of my head. the vitamin A is fat soluble, the brain is mostly made of fat, so it has remained there since accutane is a massive dose of vitamin A. for most people it doesn't cause such horrific problems but it's a horribly dangerous medication and if i had been informed I would never have taken it. i will just have to keep waiting until i get better. but maybe some med can actually not make me worse and then i'd be able to give something a full trial.

 

Another idea

Posted by pellmell on September 8, 2001, at 13:55:28

In reply to Other options than AD's for depression?, posted by adamie on September 7, 2001, at 17:55:19

> wellbutrin together with zyprexa was quite bad for me.
>
Have you thought about trying Wellbutrin alone? or Zyprexa alone?

Maybe your problems with these meds come from swallowing bad cocktails. Remember a few weeks ago when you decided that Wellbutrin might be the best thing for your symptom profile? You may still be right. Maybe you could try it unaugmented. It, as you know, has no reuptake effect on serotonin, so it almost certainly wouldn't cause you the hell that you suspect Effexor and Prozac have caused you. If it doesn't make you feel worse, stick with it, work with your doctors through doseage increases, etc. I know what it feels like to want to be well *right now*, but the best antidepressants don't work like ordering a pizza. I know you know all this, but I think it's worth saying again.

Also, I thought you mentioned something about taking desipramine along with your Prozac? That is another highly noradrenergic drug with weak 5HT reuptake effects. If Wellbutrin doesn't appeal to you anymore, perhaps you could try taking that alone.

While in the end the drugs classified as "antidepressants" may be wrong for you, there are still subclasses that you haven't tried (MAOIs, mirtazipine, etc.).

As always, keep in touch.

-pm

 

Re: Other options than AD's for depression? » adamie

Posted by kregpark@yahoo.com on September 9, 2001, at 4:10:16

In reply to Other options than AD's for depression?, posted by adamie on September 7, 2001, at 17:55:19

Why not stop accutane temporarily and make sure
depression goes away?

You can still take it later ...

(I took accutate once - works very well)

I've taken mostly Nardil + Klonopin and
all kinds of other stuff in experiment for severe
SP which is well under control now knock on wood.

Good luck!

kregpark@yahoo.com
http://www.socialfear.com


> I have tried 4 ad's and 3 of them made me worse. effexor made constant mind torture, it was hard to even function. wellbutrin together with zyprexa was quite bad for me. 3 days ago I went on prozac. the first day on it I felt a horrible worsening effect, this was maybe 4 hours after taking the first 20mg dose. i was beggining to feel extremely horrible. I was crying for a few hours and feeling completely horrible, just trying to lay in bed to pass the time, trying to somehow go to sleep, i slept a tiny bit, afterwards it was 5 hours later and the absolutely horrible feelings have passed. so i thought maybe prozac can end up helping afterall but nope. just feeling too horrible the last few days including today. so i am stopping the medication. my mom said perhaps I would be better without meds. Of course I would be better without these but, I want to feel more than just pretty bad. in that non med state i can function a bit, very little mind torture but everything is hard to enjoy, little emotion, very severe inability to concentrate. i want more than that. so i want to try meds until something can work. until i try something that doesn't initially make my depression worse. if there is no worsening effect then deffinetly i would be able to actually complete a full trial.
>
> so I was wondering what else can work for depression aside from anti depressants, anti phychotics, and stimulants. what other choices do i have and how do they work? I have read that anti convulsants can work if someone's depression is made worse by seratonin medications. but I'd like to know what else is out there.
>
> my specific problem is caused by accutane. so my brain is filled with excessive vitamin A and generally my head feels very tight. when my depression is at it's worst i sometimes feel very hot on the sides of my head. the vitamin A is fat soluble, the brain is mostly made of fat, so it has remained there since accutane is a massive dose of vitamin A. for most people it doesn't cause such horrific problems but it's a horribly dangerous medication and if i had been informed I would never have taken it. i will just have to keep waiting until i get better. but maybe some med can actually not make me worse and then i'd be able to give something a full trial.

 

Re: Other options than AD's for depression? » adamie

Posted by Elizabeth on September 11, 2001, at 15:26:08

In reply to Other options than AD's for depression?, posted by adamie on September 7, 2001, at 17:55:19

> I have read that anti convulsants can work if someone's depression is made worse by seratonin medications. but I'd like to know what else is out there.

That's true. Tegretol and Trileptal, as well as Lamictal, seem promising, particularly for agitated depression with some manic features. Consider lithium as well.

You might also think about targeting the endogenous opioid system, with full agonists like morphine, mu agonists like buprenorphine, or kappa agonists like Stadol. Opium was the very first antidepressant and has been used for thousands of years. Opioid antagonists (naltrexone, basically) also help some.

Another approach involves the use of antiglucocorticoid drugs. This appears to work selectively for people whose cortisol levels are not suppressed after administration of dexamethasone. (The test for this is called the "dexamethasone suppression test.")

Finally, trying Wellbutrin alone seems like a good idea. Other approaches include NE-selective ADs (desipramine, etc.) and dopaminergics (stimulants such as modafinil and amphetamine).

One other approach would be to try a triazolobenzodiazepine, such as Xanax or Deracyn.

Don't give up. I've tried far more things than you, and I eventually found something that works.

-elizabeth


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