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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by sk85 on October 15, 2013, at 10:26:45
Hello! Haven't written here for some time. I'm interested to hear about experiences relating to naltrexone (low-dose) and its effects on anhedonia.
I'm currently taking 50 mg of sertraline (Zoloft) for depression and anxiety. The first month or so was quite great. I felt an increase in motivation and life seemed to be better again. However after 2 months I'm still doing OK, but there's again this lack of enjoyment in doing things that I feel SSRI-s don't really fix very well for me in the long-term. I've tried Welbutrin add-on, but that stuff just turns me into a mess (irritable, emotional, angry etc).
Naltrexone although sounds promising. And it has been described to restore some of the effects that SSRIs lose over time (although the reports for that are rather vague and not very consistent). It would make sense that increased opioid activity results in more calmness and enjoyment in things. However I'm put off by some of its effects relating to insomnia that a lot of people report in the beginning phase of treatment with LDN. So I'm not sure whether it would work for this rather difficult aspect of depression, or, it's not worth the trouble for pursuing it for that.
SO any personal accounts with naltrexone and SSRIs would be welcomed! :) Did it do anything for your anhedonia? What would you describe as its long-term effects, the ones that persist well beyond the first weeks?
-Ikaros
Posted by g_g_g_unit on October 16, 2013, at 4:16:12
In reply to Low dose naltrexone with SSRI for anhedonia, posted by sk85 on October 15, 2013, at 10:26:45
I was interested in LDN for anhedonia and did a little bit of research into people's experiences.
Cost-wise, it seems harmless, since if you obtain Naltrexone online and produce your own solution, it's like $50 for a year's supply.
The thing that stood out was that some people emphasized titrating slowly and essentially treating it like an SSRI .. i.e. being careful with how you move up can allow you to side-step most of the side-effects like insomnia. There were suggestions, however, that some tolerance did set in w/r/t it's opiate-like properties, and that people became lazy/numb with consistent use, as you would with a regular opiate. It seemed like that effect could be dodged with lower/increasing the dose regularly, but I couldn't find anything concrete in that regard.
Have you thought about something like Mirapex? or too risky?
Posted by sk85 on October 30, 2013, at 4:49:11
In reply to Re: Low dose naltrexone with SSRI for anhedonia » sk85, posted by g_g_g_unit on October 16, 2013, at 4:16:12
I'm getting pretty decent results for anhedonia with 0,5 mg of NTX taken 1 h before bedtime (at 2 weeks currently). I also lowered my sertraline from 50 to 25 mg (which has been shown to still provide benefits but significantly lowered incidence of SEs). However I tried going higher with the NTX and the insomnia was exhausting and I decided I'm might be way too greedy and should perhaps satisfy with 500 ug results where my sleep is fine.
Other effects noticed: appetite lowered, libido hightened, slightly oppositional when communicating with other people, OCD might be slightly increased, also slight anxiety maybe, no increased AD effects but (as said before) ability to "enjoy" things has improved, decreased desire for caffeine.
Will continue to see how things evolve, however, subjectively it's having neutral/positive effects for many different aspects of my emotional state.Ikaros
> I was interested in LDN for anhedonia and did a little bit of research into people's experiences.
>
> Cost-wise, it seems harmless, since if you obtain Naltrexone online and produce your own solution, it's like $50 for a year's supply.
>
> The thing that stood out was that some people emphasized titrating slowly and essentially treating it like an SSRI .. i.e. being careful with how you move up can allow you to side-step most of the side-effects like insomnia. There were suggestions, however, that some tolerance did set in w/r/t it's opiate-like properties, and that people became lazy/numb with consistent use, as you would with a regular opiate. It seemed like that effect could be dodged with lower/increasing the dose regularly, but I couldn't find anything concrete in that regard.
>
> Have you thought about something like Mirapex? or too risky?
This is the end of the thread.
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