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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
I am always afraid to start and try a new med. This has to do I'm sure by the fact that when cortisone came out they gave it to my mother and as a result of what they didn't know it killed her. Anyway when I was younger meds caused bad side effects for me so I never stuck with them. Now they want to try nortriptaline and I still haven't started it cause once in the past I given a TCA and I was up walking and crying all night. Anyone else afraid to try meds? Fondly, Phillipa
Posted by willyee on August 30, 2005, at 20:12:16
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
> I am always afraid to start and try a new med. This has to do I'm sure by the fact that when cortisone came out they gave it to my mother and as a result of what they didn't know it killed her. Anyway when I was younger meds caused bad side effects for me so I never stuck with them. Now they want to try nortriptaline and I still haven't started it cause once in the past I given a TCA and I was up walking and crying all night. Anyone else afraid to try meds? Fondly,
Phillipa
You better believe it.Also what tends to happen is theanxiety of starting the new med is so intense that sometimes you imagine the initial side effects of a certain dose to be worse,or you dont feel anything et etc.I know im in that spot,if i dont know a med its like a stranger trying to rob me,im looking susspicouly with one eye open,anxiously.
I know this makes me want to cut a med trial short if not dead in its track.Advice i can give you and myself is to try NOT to let initial axniety of taking the new drug interfere with what the new drug is ACTUALY doing,dont get the two confused.
For examply i have no problem taking klonopin,but im sure someone out there is taking it for the first time,very scared,and noticeing all kinds of things after first dose that prob have to do more with her anxiety of taking it rather than the actual first klonopin pill.
I can give this advice well,havent been taking it myself very well.
Posted by sleepygirl on August 30, 2005, at 21:05:33
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
absolutely-because of what they might do, or not do, and what you may go through getting off it. I am hating medications right now, really questioning them, thinking about a medication holiday when the time feels right. Good luck to you.
-sleepy
Posted by Glydin on August 30, 2005, at 21:16:52
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
Always... many times over and over - but if I hadn't given my last RX a whirl, I would not have discovered it was a great choice for me. My exteme anxiety and apprehension lasts quite a while with startup. Benzos help ALOT in startup. This last time for a med trial - it was worth it... you'll never know if you don't try.
Posted by rjlockhart98 on August 30, 2005, at 23:01:03
In reply to Re: Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med? » Phillipa, posted by Glydin on August 30, 2005, at 21:16:52
I am not really scared with trying new unless they are nueroleptic's (antipsychotics) becuase i am scared they will numb me out, zombie.
THat would be a nightmare, i do take Zyprexa at a low dose but i more as a mood stablizer.
Paxil would be a bit appreihending before starting, becuase of suicide risk.
Posted by Racer on August 31, 2005, at 0:13:42
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
PJ, the best advice I can give you, other than reiterating that nortriptaline saved my life, is to try it and use this board and b'mail and emails and telephone calls and all the other support you can find to get you through the anxiety about starting it. I know it's hard -- just ask GG and chemist how many times I was going to quit Cymbalta when I started it, if they can count that high ;-% -- but if you don't try it, it can't work for you.
Nortriptaline must have been good for anxiety, since that's a big part of my trouble. It really was a friendly drug, once it finally got to therapeutic levels for me, which took seemingly forever. (I'm not easy to dose. {shrug})
Hard as it is, Miss PJ, one benefit of the TCAs is that they've been around long enough to be pretty well known. There's not a lot that you're going to teach your doctor about them by your reaction, which is maybe a good thing with your history.
I'm sorry about your mother.
Posted by TheMagicPill on August 31, 2005, at 1:51:27
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
We are all scared of the unkown. when you have been taking a med for so long, it is tough to move on to a different one, even if it hasnt been working well, just because you are so used to it.
when you take the new one, just think of it as HOPE. that this may be the one med that starts to turn things around again.
Posted by yxibow on August 31, 2005, at 5:29:43
In reply to Re: Yes, of course, posted by TheMagicPill on August 31, 2005, at 1:51:27
When I first started neuroleptics (needed for Dopamine D2 reduction) for a rare type of somatiform disorder (visual aberrations) that started close to 4 years ago, I was petrified of TD, to the point where being so probably negated part of the effect of the neuroleptic and other medications I was on.
Admittedly Risperdal gave me a (as yet) permanent very slight twich on my right index finger and Zyprexa gave me pseudoparkinsonism (which has probably abated over time).
Still given all of this by the time I came to Seroquel, my own research on likelihoods of problems and experience with the medication finally gave through and although I still worry about TD in the back of my mind, its not there constantly through the day.
In the end, one either follows to the best of their comfort of what 2005 has given us in modern medicine, or we abandon what is "modern". This isn't to say that if you start experiencing unusual, uncomfortable, or alarming side effects you shouldn't notify your doctor as soon as possible -- everyone is different no matter what a Phase III trial of 4000 people can indicate.
My mother has permanent angioedema allergies contracted from the use of an ACE inhibitor. But medicine has changed since those 2 or so decades greatly. Its a matter of what one feels risk versus benefit and state of manageable, good health. If one is facing down a path of extreme suicidal thoughts, a quick acting antidepressant or neuroleptic should be indicated no matter what. The unknown is a scary path, but at the end of the day, even with stories of Vioxx and all the rest of it, modern medicine saves lives. And I speak from a personal perspective -- I have no heartstrings for pharmaceutical companies and profits, yet I guess I do believe in the sense of "better living through chemistry".
Life, and the length of it, has changed in the past century, to the tune of 30 years more on the average, in the US at least. Politics aside (or not), this next century will define medicine in an even greater way provided genetic and stem cell research is allowed to progress to the point where medications may even be specifically tailored. I'll leave that comment at that as I'm sure everyone has different political opinions there. Hope comes from within.
Posted by Sebastian on September 3, 2005, at 14:06:29
In reply to Anyone Else Afraid To Start A New Med?, posted by Phillipa on August 30, 2005, at 18:12:33
I am always afraid of a new med because I don't know what it will do. I've had bad experiences with some of the new drugs I tried. Problems with anxiety and TD, like jaw clencing. You never know what it will do till you try it.
You have some bad experiences with other people taking new drugs. So it is understandable.
This is the end of the thread.
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