Posted by Bob on September 10, 1999, at 14:34:41
In reply to Re: Lamictal and Cyclothymia, posted by Sean on September 10, 1999, at 12:46:29
Hi Noa,
Last fall, I was on lithium for a while as an SSRI
augmetor. (oops! almost launched into the story of
how I got there, but another time ... ;^). First,
it was several months of prozac, lithium, and
klonopin. The combo seemed pretty mediocre, but
I did get some boost from the lithium. My pdoc
switched me back to zoloft then, since its been
the only SSRI I've taken (haven't had celexa yet)
that seemed to do any good. The zoloft, lithium,
klonopin cocktail did work better than the
prozac for me, but only marginally. By this time,
I'd been on lithium for about six or seven months.
So, we dropped the lithium and switched to
nortriptyline.Getting back specifically to the lithium ... like
I said, it did seem to boost the SSRI I was on
at the time. One big problem for me was that I
couldn't tolerate more than a modest dosage -- I
don't recall the dosage exactly ... it comes in
tabs of 150mg, I think, and I was on 300/day.
450 gave me headaches and the shakes, so I never
tried it at a higher dosage for long.I guess the best evidence for its use to potentiate
SSRIs is what happened when I went off it. My
pdoc wanted me to let it wash out for two weeks
before starting the nortriptyline. Well, you know
those films of demolishing buidlings by imploding
them so they just collapse in a big, messy heap.
That was me. I was (and still am) on 200mg zoloft/day
and within a week of dropping the lithium, I was
just "five steps out of the hospital", as my
girlfriend put it (worse thing is, she knows -- she
worked in psych half-way houses for six years).Well, I've had my share of weird responses to meds
and this piece of my history was no exception. If
you factor out my head's unwillingness to cooperate
with what I'm feeding it, I'd say give it an honest
shot.Cheers,
Bob(gotta run to therapy ...)
poster:Bob
thread:11004
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990829/msgs/11365.html