Posted by Racer on January 24, 2006, at 16:30:41
In reply to Re: Is more not always good?, posted by Emily Elizabeth on January 24, 2006, at 15:35:58
Most drugs have an effective range, a therapeutic window in which their effects are optimized. Higher than that is likely to produce either more side effects or even a reduction in benefits. Partly it's the law of diminishing returns -- raise a dose above this level, and the benefits are outweighed by the adverse effects; but in some cases you will just plain lose the benefits. (That pretty much happened to me with Cymbalta, but that's another story.)
The old TCAs used to have blood tests to find out if they were in that range. It was nice, because it removed a lot of the guesswork -- you'd know if you weren't responding to the drug, or if you just hadn't gotten into range yet. The newer drugs don't have that, so it's more guesswork. Raising doses, though, beyond the top of the therapeutic range FOR YOU won't improve performance, though.
I'm curious: you say you raised the dose? What has your doctor had to say about this?
poster:Racer
thread:602382
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060122/msgs/602410.html