Posted by Ritch on February 23, 2003, at 10:26:57
In reply to Question for the med heads, posted by Jackster on February 22, 2003, at 23:37:42
> I'm not expecting anyone to be able to answer this question (unless some neurologists regularly read this!) but I'm hoping someone might be able to point me in the way of a website that might offer a solution. I'm on Paxil (40mg) and nortriptyline (10mg) - and I know the Paxil inhibits the metabolism of the TCA. I'm about to up the nortriptyline to 20mg. My PDoc assures me this will be OK - but I just want to know roughly what the drug interaction increases the effective dosage of the nortriptyline to. (i.e. is it twice the dosage? three times?). I will be having a blood test - but my PDoc wants me at 20mg before I take it. I'm just a bit paranoid after my previous PDoc had a habit of prescribing dodgy drug combos. (I now like to do my own research as a double check).
>
> Thanks for any advice
> Jackie
Jackie, you could ask your doctor about taking the extra 10mg just every other day for a week before you go to 20mg every day. That's what I did when I was titrating it upwards. It is a little less jarring on side effects that way whatever your blood level of NT happens to be. You could also ask your pdoc to do an extra blood draw after a week of that just to settle your mind-if you don't mind the expense.
poster:Ritch
thread:202967
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030219/msgs/203045.html