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Re: 10+ Year Users of SSRI--Effects

Posted by bleauberry on August 21, 2008, at 16:19:57

In reply to 10+ Year Users of SSRI--Effects, posted by NewQuestions on August 21, 2008, at 15:41:57

I don't know. I assume everyone is a bit different in what happens with longterm ssru usage.

I was on ssris for about 12 years. Paxil one year, zoloft half a year, and prozac all the rest. The 6 month period after paxil was drugfree and I was ok for a few months and then gradually deteriorated against my will no matter what.

I have been off meds now for about 2 years. I have had very short (days to a couple weeks) trials of various other things, but no ssris. Anyway, yeah, it seems like I no longer make very much serotonin. All the symptoms of low serotonin are present...anxiousness, disturbed sleep, and blue mood.

My doctor had me do a urinary neurotransmitter metolite lab test. I don't know how accurate they are for telling what is going on in the nervous system, but the results that stood out bigtime were slightly elevated gaba and extremely low almost non-existent serotonin. We figured that either my body is hanging on to all the serotonin it can make and not excreting it because there isn't enough to afford to excrete, or that it just wasn't being produced, and that gaba was trying as hard as it could to make up for the shortage. Hypothesis. But the lab numbers were kind of stunning to see.

I tried 5htp for a couple weeks. Very sensitive to it. Started at just some powder on the tip of the finger and worked up to 25mg in late afternoon. It was reminiscent of ssris. That is, calm, everything is ok, good sleep, but absolutely no interest in life, and sexual dysfunction worse than ssris. In some ways my body liked the serotonin, but in other ways did not.

Since then the only thing I have responded to is a primarily norepinephrine med (Milnacipran) from overseas mailorder. Even Cymbalta was way too strong on serotonin for me and had me in the dumps rather quickly.

So I don't know. For me at least, I have no doubt that longterm ssri screwed some things up pretty bad. I went a solid 6 months drugfree to see if I would stabilize, but each passing week just got a little worse and worse, and then serotonin manipulation did not do what it used to. I never did well on norepinephrine meds before, but now I do, so what the heck. Something changed, a lot. All I know for sure is that my pee had normal levels of all other neurotransmitters in it but hardly any serotonin, and that I now ssris feel like poison.

My doc does not like longterm ssri usage. He says it does permanent changes in the brain and is neurotoxic in that respect. Just his opinion. I do not believe present day science really knows anything about this topic you brought up.


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poster:bleauberry thread:847565
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080814/msgs/847567.html