Posted by Christ_empowered on July 29, 2010, at 11:25:42
In reply to how to 'treat' this awful conglomerate of issues?, posted by g_g_g_unit on July 29, 2010, at 8:45:00
Sorry you're going through such a rough patch. Using an antidepressant with a stimulant has its pros and cons. The stimulant boosts the antidepressant, and the antidepressant can help mellow out the stimulant a little bit--I personally found that a reuptake inhibitor of some sort mixed with a stimulant made the stimulant less harsh and also made the time in between doses a good bit more tolerable.
I would think Cymbalta or Effexor would be good with a stimulant. I used to take Tofranil-PM with Adderall with good results. Cymbalta is kind of like Tofranil (I think...) in that it has balanced dual reuptake inhibition, whereas Effexor is an SSRI at lower doses and then you get dual action at higher doses and (I think) some dopamine reuptake inhibition at much higher doses. The cool thing about Cymbalta is that, unlike effexor, dosing is easy; 60mgs is the ideal dose, based on the data available. You don't have to go up and down like you would with some other medications.
Do keep in mind that mixing a stimulant and an antidepressant can sometimes lead to serotonin syndrome.
There are now non-stimulant options for ADD. You have Tenex (original, generic, and a new form specifically for ADD--I think its an XR or something), Straterra, or high doses of more activating antidepressants (Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Effexor, etc.) w/o a stimulant.
You could use a non-stimulant, especially something like Tenex, along with a stimulant and other CNS drugs.
Good luck.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:956304
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100720/msgs/956318.html