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Re: Asendin (amoxapine)? Also my 2 cents about doctors

Posted by OldSchool on December 19, 2001, at 19:14:11

In reply to Asendin (amoxapine)? Also my 2 cents about doctors, posted by 3 Beer Effect on December 19, 2001, at 3:47:37

> I am a social phobic who is attending a chemical dependency/alcohol & depression rehabilitation program at a mental hospital on an outpatient basis. The psychiatrist prescribed 25 mg of Asendin (amoxapine) at bedtime and told me to stay on my previously prescribed dose of klonopin 0.5 mg in the morning and 0.5 mg at night. He plans to increase the amoxapine & only prescribed that low of a dose because I objected to taking this old tricyclic antidepressant. I don't know hardly anything about old tricyclic antidepressants except that I read almost no one uses them anymore because the newer antidepressants are safer & the old tricyclics are rife with side effects.
>
> Anyways, I tried to talk him into giving me a high dose of Remeron instead (60 or 75 mg)- Asendin is supposed to be somewhat sedating like Remeron but not as much as Remeron. I have previously taken Remeron 45 mg and slept 17 hours per day, could not get out of bed for class etc, so I thought at 60 or 75 mg of Remeron the norepinephrine has to kick in and get rid of that excessive sleep. But anyways, I am tired of arguing with psychiatrists & doctors so I am going to try this asendin stuff even though I am somewhat apprehensive.
>
> I don't think any antihistamine side effects like dry mouth will bother me so much b/c I used to take Benadryl to sleep all of the time & that never bothered me, but it does say that asendin has neuroleptic action which I think means anti-psychotic? The problem with that is that sometimes neuroleptics can cause irreversible tardive diskensia (involuntary muscle movements/spasms). In other words, if you get tardive diskensyia you are a weirdo/outcast for the rest of your life & everyone is afraid of you or thinks you are a psycho.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with asendin? any efficacy for social phobia?
>
> My doctors keep trying to treat me for depression & basically ignoring & not diagnosing me for my social phobia (which I believe is my main problem). I think the depression I've suffered was simply because of insomnia & nervous reactions i've had to all of the anti-depressants they've tried like all of the SSRIs & most notably Effexor XR. I am much happier when I just take Klonopin only with no anti-depressant, but I think the dose of Klonopin i'm on 1 mg/day is much too low to be effective for social phobia- if I ask for more I get the standard crapola line "Klonopin is a very addictive medicine" that is not supported by any of the research, or by my own experience. (How a drug that takes 2 hrs to work, causes no euphoria or instant gratification, & half of the time you can't even tell its working or not can be an addictive drug is beyond me. (I think bad publicity from the overprescribing of Valium in the 1960s and from Xanax & Ativan, all of which cause instant gratification has warped doctors' brains into thinking all benzodiazepines are the spawn of the devil & considering the medicines used to treat social phobia are very few & far between this anti-benzodiazpine attitude is a great tragedy of modern psychiatry).
> I think I may resort to self medication in a few years (buying Klonopin by mail order from Australia- which may be illegal since Klonopin is a controlled substance IV) because of my frustration with psychiatrists & doctors.

I wouldnt take Ascendin. That is an older Tricyclic antidepressant that also has built in anti-psychotic properties (D2 receptor blocking). Its an antidepressant tailor made for psychotic depression. Ascendin has a high risk of TD and EPS...problems you dont need. Mood disordered people are at higher risk for developing movement disorders than are people whose primary problem is a psychotic disorder ie; schizophrenia.

Isnt there another drug or combination of drugs you could take that is safer? Atypical anti-psychotics are much safer than these older type anti-psychotics. Many people combine low dose atypical anti-psychotics with modern class antidepressants...this is much safer than taking an older med like Ascendin. Keep in mind the type of anti-psychotic mechanism built into Ascendin is the old style "typical" anti-psychotic mechanism, again high risk of movement disorders.

IMO, the risk of movement disorders just isnt worth taking these older type anti-psychotic meds unless you are all the way psychotic and probably hospitalized. Movement disorders is serious biz...its a problem you do not want.

Old School


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poster:OldSchool thread:87374
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011213/msgs/87477.html