Posted by flipsactown on July 24, 2004, at 10:56:57
In reply to Switching to MAOI??? Please advise.., posted by RetiredYoung on July 24, 2004, at 10:02:37
I am currently on 30mg Lexapro and have been for 46 days. Yesterday, I started feeling the benefits of Lex in that I have been as depression free as I have been since I was first diagnosed with clinical depression over 14 years ago.
After 10 years on being on mostly SSRI's, Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Effexor, Remeron and Desipramine, I decided to try Nardil, an MAOI, since the SSRI's I have tried, and were mostly effective in controlling my unipolar depression, have all seemed to have pooped out.
In order to switch from an SSRI to an MAOI, my pdoc had me taper and stop all my AD's for 15 days before I could even start Nardil. Needless to say, those were the longest 15 days of my life.
I was finally able to start Nardil and in 2 weeks my depression seemed to be lifting. However, I had intense insomnia, which I did not mind at first, since I was feeling pretty good and had lots of extra time due to the insomnia to do a lot of my "honey-do's". I was getting less than 2 to 4 hours of sleep and after 6 weeks, of being sleep deprived, I was getting more and more depressed. So, I decided to get off Nardil and try Lexapro, which I have never tried and, like Prozac, the first AD I took over 14 years ago, I am once again, depression free. Yes! Yes! Good luck to you. Nardil would have worked for me if I were able to get some quality sleep, more than a couple of hours at a time. I did take Ambien and Seroquel but was still unable to get any quality sleep.
FST
> I've been diagnosed with depression and been on anti-depressants for over 15 years now. I'm currently taking Lexapro 30mg, Surmontil/Trimipramine 25mg, generic Adderal 15mg - the cocktail is having diminishing effectiveness this year. I've been doing some net research which leads me to believe that, more precisely, I have atypical depression. What's interesting is that MAOIs seem to be much more effective for this particular type of depression.
>
> Despite the dietary restrictions, I'd like to switch to an MAOI. However, some sites I've read indicate that you must be off SSRIs (and TCAs?) completely for two weeks before starting. Just going down on Lexapro would be hard enough, but completely withdrawing would be next to impossible.
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> Have others gone down this route? Advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
poster:flipsactown
thread:369906
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/369922.html