Posted by Cindylou on September 16, 2001, at 11:22:32
In reply to Re: Prozac CRASH --pdoc suggests LITHIUM?! » Cindylou, posted by Emme on September 16, 2001, at 9:55:32
Hi Emme,
Thanks so much for your response ... it's good to know there's someone else out there like me who is so med-sensitive. It definitely makes things more difficult.I took 150 mg. of Lithium at night, and was supposed to take another 150 mg. the next morning, but I felt too horrible just from that dose I took the night before. I knew it was no use trying to keep it up, just from past experience -- there have been too many wasted days and weeks, even months, waiting for side effects from various meds to subside (when normally they don't subside for me; at least not much.)
Do you mind me asking what meds you are on now (if any?) I'm very curious to see what has worked for you.
Thanks again,
cindy
> Hi Cindylou,
>
> What dose of Lithium did you try? I too am extremely sensitive to meds. At one point my doctor convinced me to try Li. I lasted four days, a couple of days at 150 mg, then up to 300. At the end of that four days I seemed less depressed. But, I was totally knocked out and missed 2 days of work. So I discontinued the Lithium. My thinking is that at some point I may need to try it again, but I will try a much much smaller dose. A "hamster" dose, as my doctor would say, and see what happens. For those of us that are so sensitive, a crumb of medicine might do the trick, or at least titrating up from a tiny speck. I've gotten good at slicing tablets into wee bits with a pill slicer. :) Good luck.
> Emme
>
>
>
> > Dear PM,
> > Thanks so much for your response. You gave me the courage to fill the prescription and take my first dose of the Lithium. HOWEVER ...
> >
> > I feel so lousy today I can't continue it :(. I am the worst person when it comes to side effects; very few meds are "kind" to me.
> >
> > So, on to my next trial -- Risperdal. I'll wait a few days for this Lithium to leave my system.
> >
> > Thanks again for your support,
> > - cindy
> >
> >
> > > > I would love to hear from anyone who has tried Lithium, to see if it helped or not. I would only take about 300 mg a day, in addition to my 5 mg. Prozac and 150 mg. Wellbutrin. (I am very med sensitive, that's why the doses are so low).
> > > >
> > >
> > > When my first diagnosed major depressive episode was uh, diagnosed, my first pdoc (who I only saw once...there's a story there) put me on Zoloft. I worked with my second pdoc after that, working all the way up to 200mg, which as you probably know is the max recommended dose of the stuff. I still wasn't getting a good response. So my pdoc added lithium. I think the dose was one 300mg capsule in the morning and two at night with the Zoloft.
> > >
> > > Anyway, three days after I started taking it my depression began to lift, and within a couple of weeks I was feeling whole again.
> > >
> > > Those whose job it is to guess about these things hypothesize that lithium works farther down the cascade than the reuptake inhibitors, at the "second messenger" level (the second messenger is the message to the neuron's nucleus resulting from the interaction between a nurotransmitter and its receptor). Which is a good thing: future psychaitric meds will most likely be targeted at that level and below.
> > >
> > > Anyway, lithium was just what I needed. I hope it works for you as well. Oh, one tip, which your doc probably already gave you: keep yourself hydrated. Lithium's an inorganic salt, and has a bit of a diuretic affect.
> > >
> > > -pm
poster:Cindylou
thread:78035
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010907/msgs/78849.html