Posted by Girlnterrupted78 on September 8, 2009, at 4:02:57
In reply to Should I switch from Parnate?, posted by Ezrahite on September 7, 2009, at 19:38:46
>But the effects that are persistent are that I feel more depressed, angry, frustrated, hopeless, and now I can't even think as well - I already have a lot of trouble with that, and I can't deal with more.
Do you feel more depressed/angry & frustrated than before starting Parnate, or just the same? Does Parnate seem to be exacerbating your depression?
> I know that if there's a dose that would help me with TRD it's likely to be higher - 60-80 at least, possibly much higher. Unfortunately Parnate is raising my blood pressure consistently, and when I take three pills at a time, or doses too close to each other, it gets higher than I can accept long-term.
You should try to spread the doses, then. Are you getting any hypotension? Or you're just getting high blood pressure? I get tons of hypotension on Parnate, and have never gotten high blood pressure on it, and I'm on 40mgs. Try spreading the doses more, or a lot more, and see how that helps.
>I think I could get up to 60 mg, but doubt I could take it higher. The other limit is what my doctor is willing to do, even if I could go up over 100 safely I doubt she would agree. And with my treatment resistance and from what I've read, I would probably need to.
You should try to do this slowly while allowing your body to adapt. When I was on Nardil, I started with lots of side effects, and I eventually adapted to every one of them. They all went away within 2-3 months. Now I'm on Parnate, and the same thing is happening. And if your doctor refuses to treat your TRD by increasing the dose, then switch docs. You can't let one doctor decide your fate.
> I only decided to try a psychiatrist again because I got my hopes up about Parnate - such a potent and thorough action on neurotransmitters must surely help if anything will. Now I'm not so sure that's the approach that I need. It's just that nothing much else ever helped either. Only twice did I get results beyond a day or two.
I only ever had 1 AD work, while everything else failed. I also have TRD. Now I'm on Parnate and I'm giving it a FULL TRIAL. I'm on my 3rd week now. I noticed an improvement within the first 2 weeks. And I noticed another improvement when my doctor augmented with 5mg Adderall. And my doctor won't stop until I am on remission, so we will add anything we can to Parnate. He's not letting me go up above 40mgs yet because of my hypotension, but as soon as my body adapts to it, we will continue going up. And we will increase the Adderall and possibly add other augmenters if it ends up being necessary.
I think you should do the same. Give it a really fair trial before you give it up. Go slow. Spread doses. Allow your body to adapt. Augment with several medications.
Best of luck
poster:Girlnterrupted78
thread:916036
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/916060.html