Posted by bleauberry on March 3, 2010, at 17:00:16
In reply to Medication Phobia (pharmacophobia), posted by Vincent_QC on March 3, 2010, at 15:46:43
I'm really sorry for the aweful things you are experiencing. I have been following the med sensitive bizarreness issue for some time. I could share some thoughts.
Some of the most med sensitive people are so because of a reason. My LLMD (Lyme Literate MD) says most of his patients are that way. That doesn't mean you have Lyme or some other similar (many of them) infections. Or maybe it does. Who knows. But it does mean you are in the same company as them, for whatever reason.
There is a good side and the bad side. You already shared your experience with the bad side. In the same way that small doses can really knock you for a loop, that also means that you may only need very tiny doses for therapeutic effect. My LLMD had multiple patients, for example, doing well on 1mg Lexapro. No healthy person would even feel 1mg. But for the med sensitive, it is probably equivalent to 20mg in terms of potency. That's the good side...you may not need much.
Remeron stimulates norepinephrine release, but not reuptake inhibition. For someone with your symptoms, not cool. 15mg does a fair amount of that. In my experience with doses ranging from 1mg to 15mg, I can feel the NE effect beginning to show up at about 7.5mg. Below that it is almost pure antihistamine.
The orange juice trick with prozac. Dump the contents of a capsule in a glass of OJ. Stir it well, drink a custom size dose. For example, 1/4 of the glass (assuming 10mg capsule) is 2.5mg. Keeps well refrigerated for a week. Stir it good each time. You can now dose it as low as you want...1mg, 1/2mg, whatever.
That said, I don't think either remeron or prozac are very good choices for the presentation of your symptoms.
While it appears noradrenaline has gone awry, and you may well be right it has, it would seem ridiculous to take a med that is strong on supporting noradrenaline, right? Well, not so fast. Due to feedback loops, boosting an overative noradrenaline system will actually slow it down. Excellent med for that, Savella. I'm talking 3mg to 6.25mg once or twice a day, expecting slight increase of symptoms for 3 days followed by calming when the feedback loops catch on to what is happening. Pills can be cut, capsules an be customized at home.
It sounds like your cortisol is way out of whack. A saliva test with 4 samples in a 24 hour period would be needed to see.
It sounds like the gut is messed up. Leaky gut. Candida. Both. Gluten intolerance. Something in that arena. That's probably how the things got into your bloodsystem that shouldn't have gotten there, that triggered the Parnate reaction.
There is a lot more going on here than just the symptoms you feel. I know people hate to hear me say it, but that's the way it is. The most likely culprit in my opinion is an unknown unsuspected infection within. That is another whole topic though. For now, if mere symptoms relief is the primary goal, remeron, benzos, ssris...all bad choices that will actually make it all worse.
My thoughts.
poster:bleauberry
thread:938472
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100216/msgs/938478.html