Posted by Another Phil on October 1, 2006, at 23:49:22
In reply to Re: treatment resistance what has worked for you? » Another Phil, posted by Jost on October 1, 2006, at 23:25:50
I was taking oral Selegiline for about two months before starting Emsam. I started Emsam in late March (I think) and finally stopped at the beginning of July. I was pretty frantic at that point because the problems it had cause with my concentration had left me with a stack of to-do lists that were obviously never going to get prioritized or done. So since I was so crazed at that point, my pdoc had me just stop the patch one day, then start with 10 mg of Parnate the next.
My Parnate story is a pretty long one, but I'll try to summarize. I increased to 30 mg/day in a few days, and immediately, I felt "great." I didn't realize at the time that I was hypomanic (sucking down a can of diet coke, then announcing to everyone around me "that was delicious!"). I just felt so good that I didn't bother thinking about what might happen next. About two weeks later, I crashed really hard. I was severly depressed (probably should have been hospitalized, but I was lucky to be able to have my mom stay with me for a few days). My pdoc then had me ramp up to 60 mg/day over the next few days, then 80 mg the next week. The problem was that I was waking up every morning crying and depressed, then after my second dose of Parnate at about noon, I'd start to feel OK. So...we added a mood stabilizer (first Depakote, which was a miserable experience; now Lamictal, which is OK). So, I'm feeling OK. No wild mood swings. But I'm not crazy about having medication-induced bipolar-like symptoms, then treating them with a mood stabilizer. (What could possibly go wrong with this in the future? right?) Not to mention the ongoing insomnia and killer constipation.
Phil
poster:Another Phil
thread:690651
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060927/msgs/691022.html