Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 913023

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

 

Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00

Hi

I see my pdoc on Monday (can't wait!) and will be asking for Parnate. I am 99.9 percent certain that he will give it to me. If I go cold turkey off of 60mg of Cymbalta and 300 mg of Wellbutrin XL, is it possible to cause brain damage? I'm sorry for such a silly question, but I am just concerned.

Thanks.

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by SLS on August 19, 2009, at 18:32:43

In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00

> Hi
>
> I see my pdoc on Monday (can't wait!) and will be asking for Parnate. I am 99.9 percent certain that he will give it to me. If I go cold turkey off of 60mg of Cymbalta and 300 mg of Wellbutrin XL, is it possible to cause brain damage? I'm sorry for such a silly question, but I am just concerned.

That's a great question. I guess the answer will depend on who you talk to. I always prefer using some sort of taper in order to prevent a withdrawal syndrome from occurring.

It is my personal belief that the abrupt discontinuation of SSRI/SNRI drugs can cause a process known as kindling. Kindling causes someone to become more and more sensitive to future discontinuations and increases their severities. It might even cause future "sensitivities" to these drugs. Again, these ideas are mine. They are far from being fact. However, the resulting inference is that one might be able to minimize withdrawal by using anticonvulsants or benzodiazepines. Trileptal and Topamax might be particularly effective. I am not so sure about Depakote.

I don't think the abrupt discontinuation of Wellbutrin will produce any untoward events.


- Scott

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by sowhysosad on August 19, 2009, at 19:52:18

In reply to Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by SLS on August 19, 2009, at 18:32:43

>It might even cause future "sensitivities" to these drugs.

I certainly seem sensitive to serotonergic meds after abruptly quitting Cipralex (Lexapro) last year.

Sertraline (generic Paxil) gave me akathisia at only 100mg, and I'm barely tolerating 10mg of fluoxetine (generic prozac) even though I used to take 20mg with no side effects.

It's really annoying as I used to do really well on SSRI's.

I'd say err on the side of caution and withdraw slowly to avoid any future problems.

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by stargazer2 on August 19, 2009, at 20:59:23

In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00

maxime,

What kind of brain damage are you referring to (physiological or functional)and how would that association be made? with a brain scan? you would have to have had scans throughout any med trials and how could you prove the effects of an event like med withdrawl with "brain damage", especially when so many of us have been on so many meds, combinations of meds and i'm sure no one really can tell what damage might have been caused by the meds or other factors, like environmental, alcohol in combination with meds, be it psych meds or other meds you take.
so many variables...

I'm sure abrupt med withdrawl can cause some neurological stress or disequalibrium, whatever the term is, except that probably it is more of a "shock" to the neurons than real, long term damage, although then again to prove any of this would be impossible.

i'm sure, it depends on what med you are on, i.e. what chemical interaction is being altered by the medication, be it seritonin, norepinephrine, up regulation, down regulation, what dosage you are on, combined with the length of time you have been on the med(s).

i'm sure brain damage for many of us is just a given, i would think, depending on the length of time one has been undergoing treatment, what meds have been used, at what dosages, and in what combination. the possibilities are endless, but i try not to think about that since there hasn't really been alot of choices over the years (or studies) which would make an association between meds and brain damage.

I don't think (subjectively) I have sustained any major brain damage, but then again, if anyone wanted to look at the effects of any of the side effects or long term damage from the meds, there would have been alot of testing and screening for these things right along. it has all really been one experiment, hasn't it? It has for me.

Making a correlation between med withdrawl and brain damage would be an unscientific guess, at most, unless you were in a study looking for things like that, with before and after brain scans and then followup scans, off all meds, at points after that. forget about it.

Who knows, it is all a gamble in this process, if you want to continue to fight and live. the risk of damage is inherent in the process and the only way to minimize the damage, at least for me, is to minimize med combinations, minimize doses and minimize length of time taking any meds, not been an option for me. so the risk exists and i do accept it.

oh well, no one said life would be easy, it is harder for many of us, but not as hard for us, as for others, i am sure of that.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do with coming off your meds. i once came off marplan cold turkey and tolerated it relatively well, although i knew my depression would inevitably return, after a long period of success on marplan. i knew I was going to descend into the abyss again. it was the beginning of a very long and dark period in my life which essentially resulted in losing 10 good years of my life. frightening to think back on that.

good luck with the drug withdrawl process, taper if at all possible, but i understand if you have to do it quick too, sometimes we have to do things that are not optimal to get beyond a bad streak.

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by tepi on August 19, 2009, at 22:36:59

In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00


This is just me .
I have gone cold turkey in all my meds I have taken during the last 10 years. All SSRI`s,SNRIS
NArdil , Wellbutrin , All atypical AP , and all the rest of AD of market , I never have tried it with benzos
I haven`t had bad side effects , I just remember to have vivid dreams on Nardil , and I woke up in the middle of the nigth hitting things around me
Im a rare person , my brain is rare , I recenlty went from 75mg to 0 mg of Nardil in 1 day because
my med did not arrived
Im taking again Nardil , and Im going up gradually

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by Phillipa on August 19, 2009, at 23:57:43

In reply to Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by tepi on August 19, 2009, at 22:36:59

I don't feel it will damage your brain. I feel a lot has to do with the amount of time you've been on the med. If not that long I've done that many times. Paxil first ad took about two weeks as didn't like brain zaps. Good luck with your decision. Phillipa

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey? » Maxime

Posted by floatingbridge on August 20, 2009, at 22:51:50

In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00

Hi Maxime,

I don't know about brain damage--I don't think wellbutrin has a real washout period--but you could drop it 100 per day--I think my pdoc had me do something like that.

With Cymbalta, not sure if the abrupt withdrawal would play havoc with your mood? Of course, if you have something tho look forward to, like success with parnate, I understand you hurry--and maybe your anticipation will be enough to counteract any mood drop.

Good Luck! Oh, what about your interview on the 27th?

fb

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey? » Maxime

Posted by yxibow on August 23, 2009, at 0:15:49

In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00

> Hi
>
> I see my pdoc on Monday (can't wait!) and will be asking for Parnate. I am 99.9 percent certain that he will give it to me. If I go cold turkey off of 60mg of Cymbalta and 300 mg of Wellbutrin XL, is it possible to cause brain damage? I'm sorry for such a silly question, but I am just concerned.
>
> Thanks.

DONT go "cold turkey" off of Cymbalta. SNRIs are known to have side effect withdrawals that would be exacerbated by dropping it.

I would go down by 20s over a few weeks, since you really want to "flush" things out of the system if you're interested in taking an MAOI.

The half life, whatever metabolites are left in your system, will be there and could cause severe problems with an MAOI, which you are already supposed to wait 14 days.

As for the Wellbutrin I can't say, but it has major drug-drug interactions with MAOIs.


You won't "damage your brain"... but as noted you may have "electrical" zaps from the receptor changes from Cymbalta, and I don't even know what would happen with Wellbutrin.


You see... psychotropics are not instant in their effects... APs, SSRIs, etc... they take a while in the "psychiatric timeline" to make their presence positive or negative.

The same applies to removing them... there will still be blood levels and transmitter issues that you don't want to mix with an MAOI.... neuroplasticity takes its time

Go off reasonably and wait at least the healthy 14 day recommendation for transferring to an MAOI.


So, no "brain damage" likely. Tough problems with side effects, possible. Hypertensive crisis with going on the MAOI the day after, quite possible.


-- Jay

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by ColoradoSnowflake on August 23, 2009, at 0:44:35

In reply to Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey? » Maxime, posted by yxibow on August 23, 2009, at 0:15:49

Hi:
My pdoc had me wait a full 14 days washout after tapering down on Wellbutrin.
I imagine the better the washout the fewer start-up problems on Parnate.
Good luck!
Gayle

 

Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?

Posted by SLS on August 23, 2009, at 2:50:25

In reply to Re: Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by ColoradoSnowflake on August 23, 2009, at 0:44:35

You can mix an MAOI with Wellbutrin. It didn't help me at all, though. On the contrary, my combining Wellbutrin with an ongoing trial of Parnate resulted in dysphoria.

The absolute contraindication with MAOIs is to combine them with any drug that inhibits the reuptake of serotonin.


- Scott


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