Posted by bearfan on July 4, 2009, at 4:37:16
Hi 28 year old male here.
I've been on 20mg Prozac for several years (6-7) and while it has helped with many symptoms, I haven't really made any more progress on it and it really put a damper on my libido and often times felt a tad bit jittery on it (often buspar or a benzo needed to be added to it). My main dx is depression, anxiety and a bit of OCD/ADD. I have trouble tolerating most antidepressants. I've tried Wellbutrin (made me worse), and the other two well known SSRIs (Zoloft, Luvox and Paxil) and preferred prozac over them.
As for SNRIs, I've tried Cymbalta for about 6-8 months. At first it was working well and I was able to handle both full time work and grad school without to much difficulty. To me, it was like a stronger Prozac, it was better for Generalized anxiety, concentration, but eventually I started gaining weight, had terrible bloating/digestive problems with it, pretty bad fatigue (needed to goto bad pretty soon after work or low dose provigil) and sexual dysfunction. Taking the full 60mg made me a bit jumpy (not being able to stand still after awhile). After awhile it didn't even work all that great on depression anymore either.
Lexapro 10mg: 6 Month trial, first started working well, calmed general anxiety down pretty well, good sleep, sexual dysfunction not as bad as some others, although motivation and concentration were worse and often times my thinking felt slower and a bit dopey-harder to follow social conversations. Was not quite as outgoing or social as other antidepressants. Coordination for sports was better than other medications. Did not have the same sense of confidence; gained a few pounds after on it for awhile.
Celexa: Tried 10-20mg for a few days and slept quite a bit; discontinued (maybe a longer trial later?)
Pristiq: Tried about 3 weeks, had a few really good days, but the stuff was just making me overly anxious (Norephrine effect?) and very fatigued the longer I was on it.
Effexor: 75mg and 112.75, more calming than Pristiq, did not give a full 8 week trial by itself (felt if I was on a drug sometimes), but noticed cardiac/blood pressure effects and still had some sexual dysfunction including ED, low libido (worth trying again-side effects go away)?
Emsam: Tried it a few days and it just felt different than other medications and I didn't like that patch thing (kept wanting to take it off before bedtime)
Stablon: 12.5 3x a day for 2 weeks, helped somewhat although the triple dosing was inconvenient (different moods if missed dose) and antidepressant affect maybe not as strong as a traditional SSRI. Sexual Dysfunction was less though
I don't really know what to do anymore, I'd really like to have a libido again (no sexual dysfunction) while not being able to gain weight either; yet still being able to keep depression/anxiety and OCD in check
The frustrating part is that I'd like to have confidence/outgoing social feeling again and have a fulfilling life.
My doctors don't really know anything more than me and wanted some help from the board. I'm not sure whether a different drug, higher dose, longer trial or an augment of an existing one (ie Provigil, Dexedrine) I've tried would make any more senseThanks!
poster:bearfan
thread:904886
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090630/msgs/904886.html