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Re: All my drugs work for 2-7 days then stop working

Posted by tiopenster on August 3, 2010, at 15:55:56

In reply to Re: All my drugs work for 2-7 days then stop working » tiopenster, posted by ed_uk2010 on August 3, 2010, at 14:47:40

Hi Ed,

My current regimen gives me average of about 80% relief and that's with 5 drugs! I don't have any anxiety or panic attacks, but I still have the constant sense that something is wrong and I have certain phobic reactions - what you described as agoraphobia. i.e. getting in the shower, going outside, going in buildings, flying, etc.

Currently, I seem to bounce around. I think the Geodon and Remeron makes me unstable from day to day. Some days I feel half way decent, but then I'll switch to feeling bad - sometimes in the middle of the day. It's like a light switch. So my drug regimen helps (I think), but it changes every day. I chart on my calendar every day how I feel in percentages and it's like I'm an ultra rapid cycler except I don't have depression. I just cycle from normal to anxiety.

I did feel stable for about 6 months when I was on Lyrica, Neurontin, Depakote, Lamictal, Remeron and Geodon, but I felt apathatic, fatigued and emotionless. I weaned off Remeron and Geodon and all hell broke loose. I was stable, but only because I was consistently anxious and nauseous. I went back on all Remeron and Geodon, but have not been able to regain the same stability. That's after 8 weeks.

I used the term tachyphylaxis as a description of how I do well for a short amount of time on a new drug or a new dosage and then it goes bad. Here's the article that I got the term from. It's a brilliant article because it describes me exactly (except that I'm not bi-polar) - something no one has been able to do. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/51906 The authors describe several responses to SSRIs. Tachyphylaxis is one of them. Not only did that happen to me on SSRI's, but also Tricyclics, Neurontin, Lyrica, Lamictal, Geodon, Zyprexa & Buspar. I actually drove 4 hours to meet with the author of the article - Dr Coplan. He was great, but he just said to take more Lamictal, which didn't do the trick. He stopped responding to my follow up emails probably because he didn't know what to do. Now I can't afford to see him any more even if I was willing to drive up to New York.

My local psychiatrist doesn't know what to do. (I've been through an internist and 2 psychiatrists.) As I mentioned previously, he didn't want to do MAOI's because I "react poorly to serotonin." But as you said, this could simply be the reuptake inhibition mechanism.

I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but benzos don't do anything for my anxiety.

What do you think my best option would be? Nardil? I'm only worried about side effects and the 2 months that would be required for a fair trial and the fact that I'd have to go off Remeron. I did a drug interaction test here and it seems that I could keep all my other meds (although I don't know how much they're doing) http://www.medscape.com/druginfo/druginterchecker I was surprised that there was no counter indication for Geodon. Maybe it's wrong.

Again, thank you Ed for taking an interest in my situation. It's very helpful considering the fact that I feel lonely because I'm a medical mystery! I knew I was one when my pdoc told me about potential drug trials that NIMH was always doing.


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poster:tiopenster thread:956187
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