Posted by barbaracat on October 7, 2005, at 15:10:10
In reply to Question for Barbaracat, Gromit, Declan, posted by TamaraJ on October 7, 2005, at 12:25:05
> Can macuna pruriens be taken with a SSRI? I am currently using Paxil CR, and, while it seems to be working quite well for anxiety and apprehension, it has had a minimal effect on depression.
>**I asked the customer center at the place I ordered the herb from mainly about whether my husband, who is on Wellbutrin, could safely supplement or replace it with L-dopa. She seemed a bit confused because she said they always recommend people to use 5-HTP for coming of ADs. I wrote back and said, umm no, Wellbutrin is not a serotonin med but works on dopamine and norepinephrine. I explained about DLPA and L-tyrosine and said that macuna felt alot better than those. She wrote back "Macuna should not be taken with SSRI! Use 5-HTP!! We sell here." Oh well.
Bottom line is I don't know and neither does she. You run into a delicate balance on these meds because dopamine and serotonin work inversely to each other. One of the reasons for the apathy common to SSRIs, which tells me that a little touch of dopamine with an SSRI might balance things out as long as it doesn't aggravate axiety.
The suprise for me with macuna is that it does not aggravate anxiety, in fact acts as a non-dulling axiolytic. In fact, I've stopped taking the low-dose Cymbalta I was on for about 5 days now. Partly to see how I do and partly once I started the macuna I felt like it was nourishing parts of my brain that weren't being addressed before. Like a very gentle but effective stimulant. I too have an anxiety disorder and am very wary of anything that aggravates it.
I'm not suggesting that macuna would be a replacement for Paxil, but I can't see any danger in starting off slowly. The brand I got I recommend highly is at www.herbal-powers.com. You should be able to tell by how you're feeling if it's going to work for you. I felt something after my first pill (I was still on Cymbalta, BTW). - Barbara
poster:barbaracat
thread:559511
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050924/msgs/564120.html