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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Vanessa Lawler on August 23, 1998, at 9:12:53
I was in a pysh ward for 3 days for an obvious unsuccessfull overdose of valium and trazedone. The doctor ub the hospital gave me these meds now Wellbutrin 150 x 2 a day and Kolopin 0.5 mg 3 x a day.
He didn't explain the side affects or how these drugs are supposed to help me. I have already taken, prozac, zoloft, buspar, paxil, valium, & trazadone. None of which made a bit of difference. Can you help me please. Thank you
Posted by Toby on August 24, 1998, at 12:59:33
In reply to Wellbutrin & kolonopin, posted by Vanessa Lawler on August 23, 1998, at 9:12:53
The Wellbutrin is an antidepressant and can also be taken for attention deficit disorder and to quit smoking. Klonopin is an antianxiety medication and is also used for seizure control and to control acute mania (wouldn't be used long term for mania). Any of those apply to you? Never let a doctor just put you on medications without telling you what they are for or how he expects them to do differently from what you've been on before. Otherwise you don't know what to look for.
Considering what you listed as your previous medications, I'm assuming you have depression with components of anxiety, although it does also sound feasible that you may have a panic disorder with subsequent depression (?). Either way, please take your medication consistently. If your depression hasn't responded to the other medications, you may need to have the dose of medication increased quite a bit to get any response or you may ultimately have take more than two medications to get a good effect. Don't get discouraged... stick with it and ask questions. Give me more info if this wasn't specific enough for your situation.
Posted by Brady Franzen on March 16, 1999, at 15:33:01
In reply to Wellbutrin & kolonopin, posted by Vanessa Lawler on August 23, 1998, at 9:12:53
> I was in a pysh ward for 3 days for an obvious unsuccessfull overdose of valium and trazedone. The doctor ub the hospital gave me these meds now Wellbutrin 150 x 2 a day and Kolopin 0.5 mg 3 x a day.
> He didn't explain the side affects or how these drugs are supposed to help me. I have already taken, prozac, zoloft, buspar, paxil, valium, & trazadone. None of which made a bit of difference. Can you help me please. Thank you
I am not a physician or anything near it, yet I consider myself to be fairly well educated about psychopharmacology--big word that means I know some stuff about psych-meds. The point is that I am currently taking Wellbutrin, Clonopin in a higher dose, and Effexor. I beleive
that these are all good medicines and I have not experienced any intolerable side-effects from them. If you wish to speak directly to me, you know where I am--not in the psych ward presently , at least. But the generic names of these drugs are, bupropion, clonazepam, and venlafaxine, respectively. I can read well and have recently graduated from the PDR, to the Physicians GenRx. Give me anote back if you like.
Posted by burnedout on December 4, 2003, at 10:38:48
In reply to Re: Wellbutrin & kolonopin, posted by Brady Franzen on March 16, 1999, at 15:33:01
I am taking Wellbutrin after going through many of the meds. you tried.
Wellbutrin is know to have a side effect of increasing Anxiety. The Klonopin is like Ativan, but much longer lasting. It is used to decrease anxiety.
Since you haven't had success with the SSRI anti-depressants and the Wellbutrin works, differently, just as Effexor, maybe the combination of the Wellbutrin + the Klonopin will work and the Klonopin will balance out the side effects of the Wellbutrin.I am taking considerably more Klonopin than you are.
What we did is use a quicker acting benzo, Ativan, to see where it finally stabalized the anxiety. Then adjusted the Klonopin dose to be essentially the equivalent.
Long-term use of any of these medicines are likely to have withdrawal effects. NEVER go off one abruptly.
I have both Mj. Depression & PTSD--so saddness + stress/anxiety disorders.
After having gone through nearly everything else, unsucessfully, we thought Effeoxr might be the answer. It is an SSNRI. So it works on two chemicals in the brain, instead of just the serotonin and is labeled for giving relief to depression and anxiety.
I switched from Clexa to Lexapro to Effexor-XR. The Effexor nearly killed me.
The side-effects were bad. For four weeks I stayed at 75 mg./d, which is below the 150 mgs/d that is considered "theraputic" level.
I decided to push ahead and go to the 150, hoping the good would be better than the bad. I was ok for three days. Then it was horrible.
I wound up 8 hours in the ER.To discontinue Effexor is a nightmare. Just recently Wyeth labs changed their monograph on it to now include "discontinuation effects."
For the person whose taking Effexor, please, please, if you change from it, come off slowly. Many, many people get into trouble. There doctors don't know what to do other than follow the taper that Wyeth has published. That is NOT what Wyeth tells people to do who have trouble with it--and so many people have trouble, it is freightening. (I don't see how the drug stays on the market). In Sept of this year the FDA made thme change their lable to include suicide as one of the side effects in adolescents. --the company knew this, but they didn't publish it. The FDA made them send a letter to doctors telling them to not use it in those situations. they also knew of the discontinuation effects, but didn't publish them until recently.
I am now out 11 months from no Effexor. My blood pressure went from 136/84 to 170/120 and has not returned, I have unrelenting Tinnitus--which is maddening, I have abdominal pain which now comes and goes and is diagnosed as IBS, both suicidal ideation and anxiety have increased from moderate to extreme/acute; and I feel electrical shocks when I move my eyes--in the monography under the NOW included discontinuation effects it says something to effect--sensory disturbance, electircal like--but you wouldn't know what that means unless it happens to you.
Wyeth told me that (I believed these things couldn't be happening) I wasn't imagining and that these things are coming in as post-marketing effects. I was told that they usually happen when a person has been taken off Effexor-XR too quickly--when ANYBODY is taken off it too quickly. Then she looked up the information they have on how to do a better taper than what is published. It's too bad my doctor didn't know or the pharmacist didn't know. If they had maybe I wouldn't have gone through so much pain that I was going in and out of conciousness, plus now having the permanent things I mentioned happen and many more. Just be very careful. (what's so appaling about this is that Wyeth knows but isn't telling--at least to the US--they are to the UK).But back to Wellbutrin & Klonopin.
I think it's probably a good mix.
The Wellbutrin will most likely give you more energy, but watch out for becoming over-excited and anxious--that would indicate too high a dose.
The Klonopin will aid in releiving stress and anxiety, but you have to get it to the level where it does that. That will most likely take experimentation.Then, if the Wellbutrin + Klonopin is stabalizing you, use that time to get some therapy so the mind can take over what the drugs are doing. That's a much better and safer solution, but it's a much harder solution to accomplish.
The benzodiazapene can and most likely will cause dependency.NEVER go off any of these medicines abruptly.
I hope it works for you.
This is the end of the thread.
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