Posted by Vincent_QC on January 4, 2009, at 8:59:00
In reply to Re: What was or is your PARNATE experience? » JadeKelly, posted by JadeKelly on January 3, 2009, at 22:24:06
Hi Jade,
My experience is also limited, only one month soon on Parnate.For what I read this morning on others post, especially the post of shasling, I can see that's different for everyone. We don't experience the same side-effects and the same good effects also.
My experience at 10mg was ok, but my insomnia was worse in the begining. I ask for the Seroquel-XR to sleep at the time...and I had my car accident with it... At the begining of my Parnate adventure, I feel the stimulant effect of the Parnate but nothing more, only 1 or 2 hours after my dose intake.
I increase my dose more fast than what my psychiatrist wanted, a lot more in fact, the last time I see him, he prescribe to me only 20mg/day for 1 1/2 month... I jump into the 20mg in less than 1 week. Sometimes, take all the 20mg in the same intake, sometimes one at 8AM and the other at noon.
On 20mg, I notify a more stimulant effect but no real side-effects at all, no hypertension or no orthostatic hypotension. But I was also feeling that it was not enought to work on me. No improve on all the problems I have, social phobia, panic disorder with agoraphobia, depression, general anxiety...I stay maybe 1 week at 20 and it was just ok, mean that I feel nothing really, just more tired in the afternoon and at night also. But not the usual tiredness...it's more like I just run a marathon, physical fatigue...more than mental fatigue.
I increase at 30mg, but in theory i'm not suppose to do it...
Suddenly, I don't know why but at 30mg I begin to feel a lot of orthostatic hypotension effect, follow by hypertension periods...I also notice a really small effect on my social phobia and on my insomnia at night but nothing else. I begin also to feel more and more tired in the afternoon and in the evening, the usual physical fatigue. I can say that since i'm at 30mg and more, I have less energy in the evening, I just want to sit and do nothing. I also notice a strange effect, like I don't care about the others now, and an augmentation of my panic disorder problem since my heart start to beat more fast and hard, so I have a fixation on my blood pressure and if I feel a strange sensation inside my head or inside my chest I begin to freak out...
Even with all these side effects, I increase at 40mg, the double dose i'm suppose to take now...
At 40mg, I remember the first day was really hard. I post a topic here about it... I had a terrible night experience of low blood pressure, I was not able to move or open the light or tolerate it at all, photophobia, very low blood pressure, orthostatic hypertension as well...I had this kind of high level of orthostatic hypotension for 3 days at least but thanks god, orthostatic fade away now. At the same time, I develoop a more important hypertension problem. Sometimes having my blood pressure more high than 170/80-90, reach one time the 210 limit...Take Nefipidine pill one time...
So for now, no big improve at 40mg after 1 week.
I sleep more well at night,I can return in my bed after my 20mg dose in the morning and my 2-3 cups of coffee and sleep again, I do a little bit less of social phobia and agoraphobia but that's maybe the fact that i'm too much oriented on my heart and the hypertension side-effects I experience since 1 week.
I'm not the kind of guy to go and talk to everyone anyway so I don't notice the improve a lot, but I tend to feel a more "I don't care about the others" attidude, that I didn't had before I was on 40mg of Parnate. Before, I had to take 2 hours to prepare myself to go outside the house, if I had one pimple in the face it was the end of the world, now I don't care...I take a fast shower, put the first clothes I see and that's it...
My depression level is the same, I don't feel more happy or less happy, I don't feel more sad or less sad, I don't feel like I have fun in life again or that I have more interest in what I liked before. I don't feel also that I have the necessary energy to be 100% fonctionnal, in fact, if I stay like this, I will not be able to return to the university and find a work like I want to do soon...
I tend to feel just more tired in general, except in the morning, and less tolerant to the fatigue...
I will have to talk alot to my family doctor this week about the "viability" to continue my treatment on the Parnate or jump into something new again. (Manerix, cymbalta, even if i'm not really interrested in them, if I don't try these drugs I will never know...i'm still not sure about the cymbalta cause it's an extend release and I can't take XR pills...) or maybe try one of the TCA I never try before (Nortriptyline) was the second option that my psychiatrist wanted to prescribe to me...
I wonder if no big improve in 1 month is normal for the others people who take or experienced the Parnate?
I don't feel the stimulating effect now or the kind of nice energy feeling I had at 10mg or 20mg in the morning. I have to drink my regular 2-3 cups of coffee to be fully awake but sadly after noon, my energy return to a 0 level and I feel tired all the rest of the day. In the evening, I have to kick my *ss a lot to move it and do something. I feel just like all my physical energy is drained. On others AD's like the SSRI's or SRNI's, I had extreme fatigue, but not the same kind, I was more mentally tired...
I also notice a difference on my Valium intake, I take less...10-15mg, before I was at 20mg...Maybe for another person, 5mg less of Valium by day is not a big improve, but for me it's a "feat".
For now what I say is that the side-effects are too much high for the improve I got.
Sometimes, I wonder if I really need a AD to help me with my social phobia, panic disorder with agoraphobia, depression and general anxiety. I wonder if just a CTB therapy will not help? Since I begin one CTB therapy before christmas vacation, I will see...I continue it tomorrow, it's my next appointment with my psychologist.
For bulldog2, I read your comments about Gabapentin (Neurotin) and Lyrica... I take both of them, I had great hope about Gabapentin in fact but it never work. I was planning in the begining of 2007 to withdrawh of the high dose of Rivotril I taked at the time each day and my doctor give me these in hope I will be able to reduce my dayli intake of Rivotril. I Remember that it was a pain in the *ss to take all those pills...I had also a high dose of 3600mg/day...I stop it after 2 months because I had a lot of "needles and pins" feeling all over my body. I was also a lot more nervous on it.
Lyrica was the same experience, but it's less hard to take because it's a small pill and it's one by day...I remember it for it's drowsiness..I was unable to do anything on it. I don't use it for a long time cause it fail to produce the effect it was suppose to do...
So that's it...My Parnate experience is somewhat recent so I can't see if it's worth the trail or not. Since I don't improve a lot and I have more side-effects than good efects for now, I will keep posting about it.
I also have to say that my Nardil experience back in 2007 was not more sucessfull. IT was just after my Gabapentin experience. 90mg/day of Nardil for 3 months, with an extreme low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension that never fade away, even after 3 months, it was too much for me. All I succed to do on it was to reduce my Rivotril intake from 8mg dayli to 4mg...I was like a zombie on it, always tired, I had to drink coffee all the times, take "wake up" pills also to have more energy but at the same time my insomnia problem was getting worse...After 3 months I give up...I was a lot deseasperate because I had too much hope on it, with all what I read about it and about the fact it was the most effective single drug to use for social phobia and depression... I lost a lot of hope after this experience.
So Nardil over Parnate differences, more sedation on the Nardil, more orthostatic hypotension and hypotension, no improve on the social phobia or others problems I have...Parnate = more hypertension, more side-effects at each increasement of the dose. Strong orthostatic hypotension crisis that fade away fast after a dose increasement. A persistent physical fatigue in the afternoon and evening but help somewhat with social phobia and agoraphobia, make me less nervous about what the others person will think about me, a more "I don't care" attitude...sometimes good and sometimes bad...
So that's it...more news soon ;-) This week, doctor appointment and others news to come...
poster:Vincent_QC
thread:871986
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/872217.html