Posted by Ritch on December 1, 2004, at 10:03:48
In reply to Re: Straterra for Depression, posted by zeugma on November 30, 2004, at 16:06:30
>Strattera caused a lot of lower GI tract problems for me- not pleasant. It worked, in a particular way, for my ADD_ it made my mind perfectly clear, but this was a mixed blessing, since it inhibited my decision-making capacity- that 'locked' feeling rings a bell- and ultimately I dropped it because of the aggravation of IBS and long-time fatigue it induced (and also see below for a major adverse reaction). A couple of months ago in desperation I used it as a PRN med, and it worked (it has this 'jolting' feeling that kicks in immediately) but I needed high doses to sustain this effect which cut up my GI tract and made me more fatigued (I have virtually zero enrgy anyway). Nortriptyline is a far more tolerable drug in terms of IBS benefit and lack of further energy drain, so I have stuck with nortrip at dosages of 75-100 mg/day.
I was on nortriptyline in the past and found it to be the most tolerable TCA I had taken (the others were doxepin, amitrip., imipramine, desipramine). Nort. was the only one that didn't give me any postural hypotension, and I didn't get blurred vision as bad as with desipramine. The cotton mouth was pretty significant though and I had elevated heart rate. Too bad some pharma company doesn't explore mfg. and testing nortriptyline's metabolite (forgot the name). I've heard it is supposed to be a powerful anxiolytic.
>Unfortunately, nortrip by itself doesn't help adequately with my ADD, and I need high doses of Ritalin (60 mg/day) to get any effect at all, and as a result, my appetite is a thing of the past, and my sleep is not what it should be. I don't know that combining an amphetamine with a TCA would be a good idea, and I cannot tolerate Provigil at all. That's a shame, because provigil had a better effect on my ADD than anything I have ever tried. They should try that drug out on dyslexics, since remarkably it reversed my dyslexic symptoms (made posting intelligible messages a lot less time-consuming!). Unfortunately it rivaled Wellbutrin in the 'weird side-effect' department, and I dropped it, reluctantly, because I simply felt ill constantly on it. (I feel ill enough anyway.)
Not only do I have a "multimodal mood disorder", but there is the ADD thing that's fairly complex. It involves a combo of two problems: 1) Task ridgity (the "lockup" effect)...when I fail to take any SRI..an ocd-like thing, and 2) Excessive multitasking, incompleteness, etc...more a classic inattentive ADD thing... when I don't take a noradrenergic med. So taking a little of both seems to help both. The SRI's augment task flow and "satisficing" of tasks, while the NRI's keep me ON task and allow follow-through. I had a reasonable amount of success taking *neither* and just using Depakote+Ritalin in the past. Have also tried just using Depakote+WB, but then I have a lot of residual anxiety with those.....
poster:Ritch
thread:422158
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041201/msgs/422780.html