Posted by stargazer on December 12, 2006, at 23:20:15
In reply to feeling worse with med changes, posted by wishingstar on December 12, 2006, at 19:48:08
Here goes my lecture on med effects...if you are depressed and get more depressed on a medication for depression it is probably the med doing it to you, not the depression worsening. I saved my life with this theory once.
Any of these drugs can induce suicidal thoughts. Are you on just lithium and Lamictal? Any reason why no AD? Usually Lithium and Lamictal are added to other meds, like AD's, not used as monotherapy for depression. I know there are exceptions since I was on seroquel alone for awhile which did get me out of a very bad depression (may help you get out of this one so you can start something else once you're not so depressed and suicidal.)
I got worse on Cymbalta recently and also had a similiar effect from Zoloft years ago where the med was making me more suicidal to the point where I thought I might do something. Anyway, my pdoc and I have been collaborators for almost 20 years and he knows that I (not him) can only determine how a drug is working and if a drug makes me feel worse than I did before taking it, then we usually decide to stop it.
I too have tried most of the AD's and have not had a great deal of success with them. Just this year I was reaching a point where I had to do something different and currently I am on Emsam which has helped me alot. Have you tried MAO's, like Nardil or Parnate? Emsam is a MAO without the dietary restrictions and is a patch you wear.
Be careful with Lamictal as the dose increases (above 50 mg or so) since it made me very unstable in my balance and I had several falls, before realizing this was the cause (my pdoc missed it too).
Sorry for the rambling but I don't think the hormonal thing is a big issue, it seems the choice of meds is not the right one. If I were you and you haven't tried a MAO, that may be the next best thing to try.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer
thread:713000
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061212/msgs/713114.html