Posted by Mitch on October 31, 2001, at 12:04:11
In reply to ****Survey****: T.C.A. Drug Use, posted by jay on October 31, 2001, at 5:49:31
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> I am interested in getting an idea of who, and how many, have tried traditional tricyclic a.d's. Basically, what med, dose, how long, and what positive/negative effects did it have.? In particular, if you can relate your story to newer generation a.d's..SRI's/SNRI's...etc. Thanks. Jay :-)Hi Jay,
Well... I was on Sinequan (doxepin) for several years at first. Went from an initial 75mg/day to 150mg/day, then when I went off of it I tapered down to 25mg/day for a few months. It was GREAT for sleep, but it was much too sedative. Also, I would get racing heartbeat upon awakening in the morning along with a little dizziness when standing suddenly.
Then Elavil (amitriptyline) got tried at 10mg twice daily. I liked it better than doxepin-I had more energy, but it was still very sedative and I had friends complain that I wasn't funny any more! (it actually seemed to have a mild antimanic effect-oddly enough). I wanted my old personality back so that got stopped.
A lot of years passed on Prozac, Zoloft, etc. and then I tried desipramine (just 10mg/day by itself with Depakote), THAT one made me hypomanic and real edgy and nervous-didn't like it-but it did *wonders* for my attentional problems and it cut alcohol cravings to ZERO.
Another year or so passed and I tried Nortiptyline (10-30mg/day added to Zoloft to help with the diarrhea from the Z), and it chilled out my guts fairly effectively and improved my attentiveness without making me anxious. But I had to take the Zoloft with it to work well (very ODD). Maybe the Zoloft boosted the blood levels of the NT which would explain that (CYP2D6).
poster:Mitch
thread:82743
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011025/msgs/82770.html