Posted by dewdropinn on July 13, 2007, at 18:24:12
In reply to Re: EMSAM Question Again - Help, posted by JohnSky on July 13, 2007, at 15:58:22
I'm in the same boat with you -- I've taken a ton of drugs over the years.
If I were not taking lamictal, I would experience a considerable amount of anxiety with EMSAM -- and on the very rare days when I forget to take lamictal, the anxiety really kicks in. Lamictal basically lays the foundation that enables EMSAM to do it's job. Down the road, you may want to explore adding a mood stabilizer to your regiment -- they can smooth out mood, improve insomnia and sleep phase disorders, and augment antidepressants. Depakote and lithium are pretty gnarly, but the rest of them are very tolerable meds.
I get the impression that you're really struggling with this anxiety. If cutting the patch reduced the anxiety and didn't result in worsening of depression, then this seems like a viable course of action. Decreasing the dose doesn't pose any risk, so even if it's not doctor sanctioned, it can't hurt you, and it might be your answer. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't work with your doctor on this of course, but it seems like a reasonable solution.
I noticed that one of the other posters made some mention of 5-htp. This can theoretically be mixed with low dose selegiline in the pill or liquid form (e.g. 1-5mg as opposed to the 20-40mg dose delivered by the patch) -- but because the patch is a full MAOI, a combination of any serotonergic medication or supplement, like 5-htp, can be fatal and is obviously best avoided. Given your experience with MAOIs, I'm guessing you already know all about this.
I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to hearing about your progress.
Drew
> What I forgot to mention is why I want to try and make the medication work for me:
>
> I have tried about 15 drugs without any really helping. Just 3 weeks ago I felt very depressed with some vey dark throughts. Within days of starting EMSAM I felt less depressed and for the most part the dark thoughts disappered.
> My gut tells me this medication may help me because Nardil (a cousin to this drug) helped me a long time ago. So I want to keep trying to stay on EMSAM if I can deal with the anxiety. I am taking lorazepam and gabapentin for the anxiety but it doesn't take the anxiety down to a decent level. Just takes a nick out of it. Maybe I should take a supplement as well to help with the anxiety. My worry is the anxiety from EMSAM will never go away... meaning my body just won't adjust to it.
> I know the medication is causing the anxiety because the anxiety dropped this morning when I used a half patch.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> John
poster:dewdropinn
thread:769334
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070710/msgs/769423.html