Posted by SLS on January 4, 2007, at 6:23:31
In reply to Re: Nardil + nortriptyline is working., posted by deniseuk190466 on January 4, 2007, at 4:31:30
Hi Denise.
> Glad to see you are actually feeling good for a change, hope this is still the case and that the feeling hasn't dissipated.
Yeah. Isn't that always the fear? I felt best around Thanksgiving. Since then, my response indeed has plateaued and mostly dissipated. It hasn't disappeared entirely, though. I encountered problems with side effects after being on 75mg for three weeks. I hypotension that caused me to come close to fainting in public and causing me to fall in my apartment. Additionally, it was almost impossible for me to urinate. I couldn't initiate a stream. Luckily, I had some bethanecol laying around from the last time I had such problems. I temporarily discontinued the Nardil and am now restarting it at a lower dosage. I am going to try to stabilize at 60mg and give it some time, perhaps adding things as augmentors.
> Is it the addition of Nortiptyline that is helping or just the increase of Nardil?
> Would the Nardil on it's own be just as good do you know?
In the past, I have proven to myself that Nardil + desipramine was better than Nardil alone at those points in time that I tried it. At this point in time, it would be difficult to determine if the combination was more helpful than the Nardil by itself without removing the nortriptyline. I remained on the nortriptyline for two reasons. First, it definitely produced a small and stable improvement when combined with Lamictal. Second, it might possibly enhance the effects of Nardil more than desipramine. It is something that I had not tried yet, and I didn't want to skip over the opportunity.
> I sometimes wonder if people are on more than one drug, how do they know what each one is doing.
You either add one drug at a time or attempt to remove one drug at a time. I attempt to remove or lower the dose of a drug from time to time to evaluate its contribution to my treatment regime. At some point, I become convinced that certain drugs are critically important and just leave them alone. Abilify is one drug that I might test at some point. However, I won't touch it until I am able to fully evaluate Nardil. It may be that I can use Abilify periodically during particularly difficult times.
> Also, what does the abilify do for you?When I first started taking it, it gave me more motivation and more mental energy. I think it also helps to prevent the evolution of suicidal states, much the same as Zyprexa does. Zyprexa helps to prevent anxious states of overwhelming catastrophic thinking.
I hope some of this was helpful.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:714163
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070101/msgs/719195.html