Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 398852

Shown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate

Posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 14:39:59

Hello, Just checking in to see how the Parnate is going? I am a couple of days short of 2 weeks now. I am still feeling the SE's of coming off of the Paxil though. It is improving. My mind seems to be coming back to me. I have been in a fog for so very long due to high doses of Paxil. I can't really tell if the Parnate is working, I do seem to be sleeping better and the terrorizing dreams at night have gone away pretty much. The diet hasn't be much of a problem, still getting use to it. I did have a slight reaction to some pickle relish that was in some fresh chicken salad. It wasn't bad but I could feel it. I am on 30mg a day. I break that up into 3 doses through out the day. I did discover that I was taking to much hydroxyzine and have backed off considerably which has helped with sleeping. It will keep you awake if you take to much. My question is can you take Ambien or something like that with an MAOI? I can take Benadryl but it seems to effect my meds. Kind of makes me depressed feeling. Hope you all are doing well. Let me know how things are going with the Parnate. I have a doctors appt. tomorrow. She is very open to things and that is great. I think she will raise my dose, but I may stay at 30 for a while longer. What do you all think?
Thanks So Much, bluebird

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » bluebird

Posted by f l y on October 4, 2004, at 14:58:24

In reply to King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate, posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 14:39:59

yes, you can take ambien w/ parnate. i found klonopin to help more w/ sleep when i was on parnate.

fly

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate

Posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 15:15:52

In reply to Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » bluebird, posted by f l y on October 4, 2004, at 14:58:24

> yes, you can take ambien w/ parnate. i found klonopin to help more w/ sleep when i was on parnate.
>
> fly

Hello, How much klonopin do you take? I have it in 2mg pills. Sleep has always been an issue. If I am not on meds I can stay awake for days. My mind runs. I seem to be sleeping better on the Parnate but haven't gotten that balance yet. Regardless of what time I go to bed I am up between 2:00 & 4:00 am. Then about 10 or 11 (am) o'clock I need a nap. I can't seem to stay asleep. I have tried going to bed later and taking the Parnate no later that 4:00 pm. Just trying to get a balance and a routine. If I sleep during the day I can sleep for hours. It is as though my system is backwards and I can't seem to get it on track. You know night is day and day is night. I know it is wierd but what can I do to change it. Any suggestions. Thanks, bluebird

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate

Posted by Piquet on October 4, 2004, at 17:05:49

In reply to King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate, posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 14:39:59

> Hello, Just checking in to see how the Parnate is going? I am a couple of days short of 2 weeks now. I am still feeling the SE's of coming off of the Paxil though. It is improving. My mind seems to be coming back to me. I have been in a fog for so very long due to high doses of Paxil. I can't really tell if the Parnate is working, I do seem to be sleeping better and the terrorizing dreams at night have gone away pretty much. The diet hasn't be much of a problem, still getting use to it. I did have a slight reaction to some pickle relish that was in some fresh chicken salad. It wasn't bad but I could feel it. I am on 30mg a day. I break that up into 3 doses through out the day. I did discover that I was taking to much hydroxyzine and have backed off considerably which has helped with sleeping. It will keep you awake if you take to much. My question is can you take Ambien or something like that with an MAOI? I can take Benadryl but it seems to effect my meds. Kind of makes me depressed feeling. Hope you all are doing well. Let me know how things are going with the Parnate. I have a doctors appt. tomorrow. She is very open to things and that is great. I think she will raise my dose, but I may stay at 30 for a while longer. What do you all think?
> Thanks So Much, bluebird

Hi bluebird. I've been taking Parnate for three months now, and currently am on 80 mg per day. I mostly have insomnia problems after the dosage is raised and now treat this only with Ambien when required, as I found that benzos seemed to seemed to diminish the therapeutic effect of Parnate. Ambient seems a lot 'cleaner' in terms of after effects. My diagnosis is major depression, atypical and treatment resistant. I'm tolerating this reasonably high dosage of Parnate quite well and it is slowly bringing me out of the pit. I estimate that I am experiencing about two thirds of full remission of depressive symptoms. I hope this helps.

Piquet.


 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » bluebird

Posted by King Vultan on October 4, 2004, at 17:06:15

In reply to King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate, posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 14:39:59

I just happened to see my pdoc today and asked to go up 10 mg/day to 50 mg/day. It seems to take a couple of weeks for the effects of a dosage change to stabilize for me, and after being on 40 for 2 1/2 weeks, there had been a large improvement, but one that I believe was definitely going to fall short. I did experience a fair amount of depression going from 30 to 40, as I also did from going from 20 to 30; in fact, about a week and a half ago, I drove to work one morning with tears running down my cheeks and probably would have pulled off and bawled if I hadn't been concerned about getting to work on time.

However, for a drug that is this effective, I am willing to take a certain amount of bad in the short term if that's what it's going to take for me to get better. These bouts of depression seem to go away about a week and a half after the dosage change, and I am left wondering how I ever could have felt that way. Unlike the SSRIs, which would have a huge antidepressant effect almost immediately but did a relatively poor job on my other problems, Parnate seems to be effectively treating not only my depression, but also my social phobia, anhedonia, low libido, and ADD symptoms. There seems to be little doubt that the stuff is going to work for me, and I would guess either this amount will be sufficient, or maybe 60 mg/day.

Todd

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » King Vultan

Posted by SLS on October 4, 2004, at 17:22:40

In reply to Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » bluebird, posted by King Vultan on October 4, 2004, at 17:06:15

> There seems to be little doubt that the stuff is going to work for me, and I would guess either this amount will be sufficient, or maybe 60 mg/day.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I hope everything continues moving in a positive direction.

Good luck, Todd.


- Scott

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate

Posted by ron1953 on October 4, 2004, at 19:46:59

In reply to King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate, posted by bluebird on October 4, 2004, at 14:39:59

Hi, All:

I've been on Parnate for about a month. I went up to 30mg/day over the first week, then to 40 at around the 3rd week. I may increase to 60 soon. Overall, I think it's helping. Lethargy, which has been a problem in the past, is a little bit worse. I used to take Dex for that with other ADs, and will discuss stimulants with my doc (refer to the article cited in King Vultan's reply to my 10/4 Parnate thread). In my case, the efficacy of Parnate needs to be judged within the context of my current situation; recently divorced and unemployed because my IT career evaporated in 2001. But my moods are more stable than before, when I was on Lexapro.

I take 4mg Klonopin for sleep, as I did before Parnate.

I haven't changed my diet at all with no problems. (refer to other MAOI diet posts)

My BP, which was borderline high before, is now normal and stable.

Good luck to all of us. I'm running out of meds to try.

Ron

 

Re: Thanks, Scott (nm) » SLS

Posted by King Vultan on October 4, 2004, at 23:15:05

In reply to Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » King Vultan, posted by SLS on October 4, 2004, at 17:22:40

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » ron1953

Posted by alesta on October 5, 2004, at 12:55:03

In reply to Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate, posted by ron1953 on October 4, 2004, at 19:46:59


> I haven't changed my diet at all with no problems. (refer to other MAOI diet posts)

hi again, ron,
i didn't know you were on parnate! good choice..anyway..you made *no* adjustments to your diet whatsoever? do you still eat all the aged cheeses and everything?

thanks!
amy :)

 

Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » alesta

Posted by ron1953 on October 5, 2004, at 14:11:27

In reply to Re: King Vultan and those who are taking Parnate » ron1953, posted by alesta on October 5, 2004, at 12:55:03

Amy:

We have to stop meeting like this. People are going to start to talk. LOL

Thanks to the updated info I found through many knowledgeable PB-ers, it turns out that the standard dietary restriction list is mostly wrong. Tyramine is the food by-product that needs to be avoided or consumed in small amounts for most users of MAOIs. Some people are more sensitive. I've eaten small amounts of aged cheese with no problem, like many others. Tons of stuff on the current outdated no-no list contain little or no tyramine at all; coffee, alcoholic beverages (except tap beer), chocolate, raisins, bananas, raspberries, sour cream, and tea, to name a few.

This updated info is not generally known to doctors because most stopped prescribing MAOIs based on the old info and the advent of "safe" ADs like Prozac, etc.. But you'll see many posts on this board where MAOIs have been very effective, especially for treatment-resistant depression (like mine). Doctors had better catch up in order to better serve their patients. But good old self-education, I believe, is necessary for us to be informed mental health consumers.

Ron


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