Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 1094111

Shown: posts 1 to 15 of 15. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

Depression sucks.

Posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

Hi, All.

I want to give you a list of the drugs that I am currently taking.

Parnate (tranylcypromine): 80 mg/day
nortriptyline 100 mg/day:
Lamictal (lamotrigine): 300 mg/day
lithium: 300 mg/day
Abilify (aripiprazole): 15 mg/day
prazosin 30 mg/day

Three days ago, I increased the dosage of Abilify from 10 mg/day to 15 mg/day. That's a 50% increase, which is substantial. I may have been underdosed for many years. I am now experiencing the beginnings of an improvement. For those that know me, you will recall that a dosage adjustment can tickle my brain into producing a robust improvement in depression, but one that does not last for more than 3 days. While I am grateful for any improvement and a respite from pain and frustration, I can't be truly encouraged until my current response persists for more than two weeks.

I am currently doing volunteer work at a facility dedicated to advocating for the mentally ill and reducing stigma of these illnesses through educating the public.

Depression sucks.


- Scott

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by rjlockhart37 on July 14, 2017, at 1:43:10

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

yes it does, sometimes i get depressed even just a while ago, i don't feel like socialzing with anyone....if i do im boring and seem slow, the only thing i've learned these past couple months without babble is to tell myself i can wake up a new person everyday, and tell that to myself before sleep....depression is low nuerotransmitters and degregulation, or/and emotional situations, yet i've woke up very depressed with a mixed feeling of being alone, even when i hang around people when depressed it's not beneficial, i have to prep myself up to be around people

i think looking towards something, is something worthwhile...i've thought about helping at terrel state hospital, but it's such a long drive

i think planning each day before sleep, and knowing be new the next day could help.. help the mood increase as looking forward to something


 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by baseball55 on July 14, 2017, at 19:00:12

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

Depression does suck. It saps your energy, motivation and hope for the future. Glad you're volunteering. That can only help.

Glad to be back and to have you back.

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by Kirkglen on July 20, 2017, at 8:33:44

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by baseball55 on July 14, 2017, at 19:00:12

I've been in the deep black hole and hospitalized for suicide attempts. Today I'm the happiest person in the world, wake every morning full of energy and ready to take my potential and reach for the stars. Please read my post 07/20/2017 on Nardil even if it you've tried it. I've found a way to move it back to pre 2003 success. It is the gold standard! By the way I've tried every drug, method, whatever to stop this cruel illness so I'm not a new-be on depression,panic,anxiety, etc.

 

Re: Depression sucks. » Kirkglen

Posted by SLS on July 20, 2017, at 18:03:16

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by Kirkglen on July 20, 2017, at 8:33:44

Hi.

> I've been in the deep black hole and hospitalized for suicide attempts. Today I'm the happiest person in the world, wake every morning full of energy and ready to take my potential and reach for the stars. Please read my post 07/20/2017 on Nardil even if it you've tried it. I've found a way to move it back to pre 2003 success. It is the gold standard! By the way I've tried every drug, method, whatever to stop this cruel illness so I'm not a new-be on depression,panic,anxiety, etc.

I appreciate your input. Thanks.


- Scott

 

Good luck Re: Depression sucks. (nm) » SLS

Posted by Franz on July 20, 2017, at 19:42:35

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by LouisianaSportsman on July 21, 2017, at 22:42:31

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

Hey, Scott.

I'm glad to see you're still around. Depression does suck! I'm glad Babble is back up and running.

I'm doing well on:

Zoloft 200mg
Forfivo 450mg bupropion
Rexulti 2mg
Buspar 15mg TID
Remeron 30mg QHS

Have you tried Rexulti? It works better than aripiprazole 10mg for me. I recently switched.

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by SLS on July 22, 2017, at 8:37:25

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by LouisianaSportsman on July 21, 2017, at 22:42:31

Hi!

> I'm doing well on:
>
> Zoloft 200mg
> Forfivo 450mg bupropion
> Rexulti 2mg
> Buspar 15mg TID
> Remeron 30mg QHS

That's great news. Your treatment shows logic and enlightenment. I really like it. What role does Buspar play?

> Have you tried Rexulti? It works better than aripiprazole 10mg for me.

I did try switching from Abilify to Rexulti. Rexulti was neutral. It did not help me as much as Abilify does. After restarting Abilify, I tried pushing the dosage higher than the 10 mg/day I had been taking. I went to 20 mg/day, but found that in impaired my cognitive and memory funtions. It also caused some dysphoria. I have settled on 15 m/day, and I feel better.

I also tried Vraylar (cariprazine), another D2/3 partial agonist, in place of Abilify. It immediately made me feel horrendous. The increase in the severity of my depression was terrifying. I aborted the trial as soon as possible. I didn't want to get stuck fighting for my survival for the months it would take Vraylar to leave my system. The half-life of Vraylar and its active metabolite can be as long as 2 weeks.

Overall, I'm feeling moderately improved, and remain encouraged by the trajectory of my antidepressant response. I am currently trying to remove prazosin from the mix. It totally wipes-out my sex drive. It might also be making me feel lazy. I find that I must taper prazosin in order to retain a treatment effect and prevent rebound nightmares.


- Scott

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by LouisianaSportsman on July 22, 2017, at 18:26:14

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 22, 2017, at 8:37:25

> Hi!
>
> > I'm doing well on:
> >
> > Zoloft 200mg
> > Forfivo 450mg bupropion
> > Rexulti 2mg
> > Buspar 15mg TID
> > Remeron 30mg QHS
>
> That's great news. Your treatment shows logic and enlightenment. I really like it. What role does Buspar play?
>
> > Have you tried Rexulti? It works better than aripiprazole 10mg for me.
>
> I did try switching from Abilify to Rexulti. Rexulti was neutral. It did not help me as much as Abilify does. After restarting Abilify, I tried pushing the dosage higher than the 10 mg/day I had been taking. I went to 20 mg/day, but found that in impaired my cognitive and memory funtions. It also caused some dysphoria. I have settled on 15 m/day, and I feel better.
>
> I also tried Vraylar (cariprazine), another D2/3 partial agonist, in place of Abilify. It immediately made me feel horrendous. The increase in the severity of my depression was terrifying. I aborted the trial as soon as possible. I didn't want to get stuck fighting for my survival for the months it would take Vraylar to leave my system. The half-life of Vraylar and its active metabolite can be as long as 2 weeks.
>
> Overall, I'm feeling moderately improved, and remain encouraged by the trajectory of my antidepressant response. I am currently trying to remove prazosin from the mix. It totally wipes-out my sex drive. It might also be making me feel lazy. I find that I must taper prazosin in order to retain a treatment effect and prevent rebound nightmares.
>
>
> - Scott

Very interesting. D3 receptor partial agonism gave you a dysphoric response. I could see it doing that. I bet compulsive behaviors could occur on Vraylar compared to other atypicals. It's unfortunate that your response to brexpiprazole was inadequate. Apparently, it has more antagonistic activity vs aripiprazole? I too have been on seriously every dose of Abilify. I found 10 worked the best. Dosage changes like you reported did temporarily improve symptoms. 2mg thinking it would act as an agonist with 71% stratial D2 binding was worthless in my case. 10mg was more and beyond that point, diminishing returns for me.

My PDOC and I figured a little 5ht1a hit from buspirone would augment nicely with mirtazapine and my SSRI. I never trialed it at a higher dose. My PDOC put me on 15mg three times daily from the jump. I will report when it reaches therapeutic levels. I'm tolerating it well. Concomitantly dosing hs with mirtazapine has lead to "cool" dreams. It also makes me feel more clearheaded, but I'm attributing that to the Rexulti swap from Abilify.

Have you thought about increasing the nortriptyline to 150mg? What if you just took say 5-10mg of the prazosin at night? Are you dosing it during the day?

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by SLS on July 23, 2017, at 7:06:40

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by LouisianaSportsman on July 22, 2017, at 18:26:14

> > > I'm doing well on:
> > >
> > > Zoloft 200mg
> > > Forfivo 450mg bupropion
> > > Rexulti 2mg
> > > Buspar 15mg TID
> > > Remeron 30mg QHS

> > That's great news. Your treatment shows logic and enlightenment. I really like it. What role does Buspar play?
> >
> > > Have you tried Rexulti? It works better than aripiprazole 10mg for me.
> >
> > I did try switching from Abilify to Rexulti. Rexulti was neutral. It did not help me as much as Abilify does. After restarting Abilify, I tried pushing the dosage higher than the 10 mg/day I had been taking. I went to 20 mg/day, but found that in impaired my cognitive and memory funtions. It also caused some dysphoria. I have settled on 15 m/day, and I feel better.
> >
> > I also tried Vraylar (cariprazine), another D2/3 partial agonist, in place of Abilify. It immediately made me feel horrendous. The increase in the severity of my depression was terrifying. I aborted the trial as soon as possible. I didn't want to get stuck fighting for my survival for the months it would take Vraylar to leave my system. The half-life of Vraylar and its active metabolite can be as long as 2 weeks.
> >
> > Overall, I'm feeling moderately improved, and remain encouraged by the trajectory of my antidepressant response. I am currently trying to remove prazosin from the mix. It totally wipes-out my sex drive. It might also be making me feel lazy. I find that I must taper prazosin in order to retain a treatment effect and prevent rebound nightmares.

> Very interesting. D3 receptor partial agonism gave you a dysphoric response. I could see it doing that.

Why would D3 receptors do that?

> I bet compulsive behaviors could occur on Vraylar compared to other atypicals.

That's an interesting idea. Sort of like pramapexole (Mirapex)?

> It's unfortunate that your response to brexpiprazole was inadequate. Apparently, it has more antagonistic activity vs aripiprazole?

The Ki ratio of D3/D2 binding is higher with aripiprazole than with brexpiprazole.

> I too have been on seriously every dose of Abilify. I found 10 worked the best. Dosage changes like you reported did temporarily improve symptoms. 2mg thinking it would act as an agonist with 71% stratial D2 binding was worthless in my case. 10mg was more and beyond that point, diminishing returns for me.
>
> My PDOC and I figured a little 5ht1a hit from buspirone would augment nicely with mirtazapine and my SSRI.

I hope that produces a robust improvement for you. Doesn't brexpiprazole partially agonize 5-HT1a receptors?

> I never trialed it at a higher dose. My PDOC put me on 15mg three times daily from the jump. I will report when it reaches therapeutic levels. I'm tolerating it well. Concomitantly dosing hs with mirtazapine has lead to "cool" dreams.

I haven't given buspirone a trial. I'll talk to my doctor about it should I get stuck.

> It also makes me feel more clearheaded, but I'm attributing that to the Rexulti swap from Abilify.

That's very possible.

> Have you thought about increasing the nortriptyline to 150mg? What if you just took say 5-10mg of the prazosin at night? Are you dosing it during the day?

I get significant brain-fog and diminishing returns when I increase the dosage of nortriptyline from 100 mg/day to 150 mg/day.

How would you characterize D2 and D3 receptors in striatum versus nucleus accumbens?

Thanks


- Scott

 

Re: Depression sucks. » SLS

Posted by Tabitha on August 2, 2017, at 19:04:13

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08


>
> I am currently doing volunteer work at a facility dedicated to advocating for the mentally ill and reducing stigma of these illnesses through educating the public.
>

How's that going? It sounds promising.


> Depression sucks.
>

Truer words...

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by Lamdage22 on August 11, 2017, at 6:45:13

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 23, 2017, at 7:06:40

Hey Scott,

thats a great thing that you are volunteering.

Good luck with that. Well educating the public... "They cant do anything except taking pills" type of education wouldnt delight me.

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by phidippus on October 7, 2017, at 15:16:58

In reply to Depression sucks., posted by SLS on July 13, 2017, at 4:45:08

I've always wanted you to wash out of your drugs and start over. Evidently something isn't working.

Eric

 

Re: Depression sucks. » phidippus

Posted by SLS on October 8, 2017, at 12:37:52

In reply to Re: Depression sucks., posted by phidippus on October 7, 2017, at 15:16:58

> I've always wanted you to wash out of your drugs and start over. Evidently something isn't working.

Hi Eric.

It is extremely kind of you to keep me in your thoughts. At this exact moment, I am benefiting from a dosage change in prazosin. My problem in the past is that my exact moments have been fleeting. If it becomes necessary, I would be inclined to first swap out Parnate for Effexor. After that, I am lost. Maybe deep TMS or transcranial direct current stimulation?

If I were to discontinue all medications, what would you do first?

Thanks.


- Scott

 

Re: Depression sucks.

Posted by phidippus on October 8, 2017, at 13:12:30

In reply to Re: Depression sucks. » phidippus, posted by SLS on October 8, 2017, at 12:37:52

Let's see...You are bipolar, so I'd start with Lithium. I'd keep you on Lithium for a month then asess your depression.

Eric

Have you ever considered DBS?


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