Posted by Karen44 on June 18, 2006, at 14:48:54
In reply to Re: Can mood stabiliser lessen akathisia side effe » Karen44, posted by fuchsia on June 17, 2006, at 7:54:38
> > > Karen, the Lamictal is the one thing I've had that hasn't caused me any side effects. I did get the headaches during the start up period but after that it was fine. I have been on it for nearly a year now and it has really helped.
> > >
> > > Did you find the dietary restrictions bad with the Parnate? I was wondering about a MAO but like you I get put off by the thought of side effects,
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> > > I am really afraid to try Lamictal. My doctor brought it up today. We agreed that I would go down to 20 mg. per day on the Parnate. I started at 40 and went down to 30 and now 20 mg. He wants a back up plan if I start to get depressed again. Right now I don't feel that depressed. I am afraid of Lamictal because of all the problems I have had with other medications--adverse reactions and allergic reactions. Do you know of anyone who had a bad reaction to Lamictal?
> >
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> I don't know anyone personally taking Lamictal but people here have posted about various side effects that they were having that were from the Lamictal (or that they felt were from the Lamictal).
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> I was just surprised that I didn't get side effects (I had got them from everything else). I had an extremely slow start up; I began at 2.5 mgs.
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> My situation was extremely bad; I wasn't able to work for a number of years. Thus it was worth it to me to take the risk.
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>Thanks for your response; I too have had bad experiences with all sorts of psychotropic medications including almost all of the antidepressants other than the Parnate. However, it seems that perhaps Parnate is no longer working for me as it did once before in the past when I was younger. As far as the dietary restrictions are concerned, it has not been a huge problem for me. Many of the foods on the list are not necessarily ones one has to stay away from. My psychiatrist gave me a list of foods rated 0, 1, 2, and 3. 3 are the definitely stay away from this. 2 means you could get away with a minimal amount. 1 means you could eat some, and 0 obviously means okay. Aged cheese are a big no-no, but I can eat pizza with mozzarela cheese as that is not an aged cheese. I eat ham and chees sandwiches made out of am. process cheese. Etc. Do not drink red wine, for example, or beer. White wine is okay. The list of things you must stay away from for sure is small.
I will take to heart what you say about the Lamictal and hope we can start out very low, if needed. I am aware that we might have to keep the Parnate and add the Lamictal to it. It just scares me to death given the Serotonin Syndrome reaction I suffered from just adding a very small amount of Risperidone to my Parnate so I could sleep through the night. Take care.
Karen
poster:Karen44
thread:655126
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060617/msgs/658376.html