Posted by King Vultan on September 1, 2004, at 7:48:12
In reply to Alternatives to Lexapro, posted by wyzeguy on September 1, 2004, at 0:20:25
> Hello everyone,
>
> I've been reading this board for quite some time now, but this is my first post. After quietly suffering from some form of depression for roughly 9 years, I finally had enough and sought therapy roughly 8 months ago. I was diagnosed with borderline moderate/severe clinical depression, although my humble opinion (I'm working towards a career in medicine) is that I have more of a dysthymia set of symptoms for the past few years. Since then I have been prescribed several antidepressants, each with negative effects. First was Lexapro, which had the greatest AD effect but nausea and very frustrating sexual side effects. I then tried a Wellbutrin supplement, but that did nothing but cause my appetite to go through the roof (weird huh?). I tried fluoxetine, paroxetine, and Wellbutrin separately with no avail.
> My question is this: what are some other alternatives to curb these side effects and still have the desired AD effect? I've read about remeron, effexor, edronax, etc -- any suggestions? the effexor addiction horror stories scare me, but I am willing to try it if that's what it takes. I appreciate your input, and thanks for reading
>
> Scott
You might want to try an antidepressant in a different class, such as nortriptyline, which is a tricyclic AD with relatively low side effects (for a tricyclic). It selectively blocks norepinephrine reuptake rather than serotonin as the drugs you've tried do (other than Wellbutrin, which primarily works on dopamine). I found nortriptyline to very much lack sexual side effects, at least negative ones, and it's really not known for causing nausea, either. Alternatively, you could also try this new AD Cymbalta, which works on both serotonin and norepinephrine, but nortriptyline is cheaper and has a more proven track record. Nortriptyline also seems to lack the bad withdrawal effects sometimes associated with the SSRIs and Effexor.Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:385107
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040830/msgs/385155.html