Dear Mari

i justt want to share something that occurred with my pdoc last session. he took a call and it was clear he had prescribed citalopram (Celexa) to whomever he was speaking. after the call i asked him about his experience with it, and comparatively with escitalopram (Lexapro, which you tried). he said well he used it a long time with good results, and despite the claims of fewer side effects, with several patients he had them d/c Lexapro due to side-effects. i said like what kind. he said like agitation and over-activation. i described your reactions to it. he said well it's partly that i've used the older med so long he does not exclude a bias towards it on his part. that said, i just wanted to share his take in his use of these two meds, more or less biased or empirical that it may be.

citalopram is available in generic. some people have side effects like nausea that does not go away - i did, but i was given something to take along with it that helped so that way i could tolerate it. granted i prefer zoloft because i do not need something to treat nausea. anyway. just food for thought.

i am sorry you struggle so much with meds Mari.

(((hugs)))

~ waves ~

Dear Waves,

Thank you.

Can you explain again what he said? Was it something like he might be biased toward the med because he has used it successfully with his own patients.

There are two meds that I want to retry. I have to look though my posts here --- I used my threads to keep track
Those two meds had immediate reactions -- within a day or two if I remember -- so it would not be a long trial like the Wellbutrin that took months and then was horrible.

My first guess is that the two were Zoloft and Effexor and that the Zoloft caused paresthesia and that the Effoxor caused major sleepiness. I have to go back later to check. I'm willing to give the sleepy drug a re-try --- after I figure out which one is.
I can go back and look here later. Right now, I am only stopping by.

I appreciate that you talked to your pdoc about me. So sweet!

M

Dear Mari

what a horrible half-quote half-indirect-rephrase with pronoun switch... ekks... sorry that was confusing.

my pdoc prefers to use Celexa because, despite the marketing claims and chemical explanations as to Lexapro having fewer side effects, he has had good success with Celexa and relative difficulty with Lexapro. he stated outright it that it's partly just personal preference (bias) since he used Celexa a long time. to that i add my own observation, that in presence of a bias, he may have not fine tuned his skills at dosing it. but he did say he had to d/c patients because of side effects which was exactly what Lexapro was NOT supposed to have that Celexa did... yet his patients on Celexa did fine with it. So anyway, i got the indication that he doesn't think Lexapro's all that it's whooped up to be, and Celexa's not as bad as it's sometimes made out to be to tout the more refined drug.

i hope that makes it clearer.

that would be odd that effexor made you sleepy.

no it was not effexor anyway!! i remember!!! it was something he only gave you three of to start with and there was the whole deal with you getting it and trying it before he left... lots o pressure. i think you put off the trial. heck i don't remember what med though. i think it began with a t. no wait. Remeron? was that it?

i can't remember if you ever tried effexor in the past, but it is pretty activating usually. lyrica is the newer version ... used in other pathologies to treat pain and paresthesias, that might be a thought.

zoloft did end up giving you paresthesia as well. i remember that. i was sad my "favorite" med didn't work for as well for you as it does for me.

(((hugs)))

~ waves ~

Iis very good that we have each other to help us.
This is invaluable support. thank you waves.
bizi

Summary of Antidperessants Lesapro, Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Effexor, Remeron

This is an old post from February 28, 2011 that summarized the previous eleven months of antidepressant trials.

Waves,
The discussion with your pdoc was close to my understanding. I apologize for asking you to restate it.

Your memory is very good.

It was the Remeron after three tiny doses. I wish I had more than three pills. I would be willing to try it again. But is not available in generic until 2012 or beyond --- not an option anyway.

I have samples of Lexapro here that I could try again but there is no point to doing that since it is not available in generic.
I am going to call my pdoc about Celexa on Monday.

The Celexa weight gain problem is horrible according to the search I did.
I might as well go on Prozac. Prozac is easy to discontinue and is safer than others regarding weight gain.






M.

Dear Mari,

i didn't remember the Effexor, wow. not as good a memory as all that it seems... or the cymbalta for that matter.

But i remembered (perhaps because it is my "favorite" med? ) this thread:

after that there were no further posts so we don't know what happened... (we can only ASSUME.... but we know what that spells out )

i am not trying to engage here as to what happened with the Z, as per your original request, just wanted to remind you that it is on the "tried" list... i hope you can remember/figure out how it played out in the end and whether or not you want it on the retry list.

i am glad you are open to retrying a couple things with which you had a rough patch but and did not perhaps d/c'd too early to really rule out. that takes courage and patience. i wish you well. let's see what your pdoc says about the Celexa.

the SSRIs that i took for any length of time (months->years) did not cause me to gain weight... certainly not more than my usual range of gain and losses... did not bust out of clothes... Zoloft i took for periods > 12 mo in varying doses. i would have to look back at charts to tell you how long i was on Celexa.

i am a bit afraid of prozac because it is so long acting if it were too activating or had untoward side-effects, nothing you can do but wait it out - definitely one to titrate more slowly AND in rat-sized dosages (or even, baby-rat sized) if you ask me... but the experiment to get up to therapeutic range could take a very long time this way.... arghhh..

~ waves ~

Quote:

Originally Posted by waves Dear Mari, after that there were no further posts so we don't know what happened... (we can only ASSUME.... but we know what that spells out )

Dear Waves,

OMG. I wrote that 10 days before my work colleague passed. Lives have changed in the 3+ months since then.
=-=-=-

I remember now what you said about Prozac in another post a while ago. That is logical. It's just that I was on Prozac for four years. Yes. I was younger and so on. I took Prozac w/ Lithium. That was a horrible combo that put me into what seemed like a four year mixed state now that I look back on it. . . . not sure why I remember Prozac fondly ( )

I did not repeat the Zoloft trial because, . . . well because. . . mostly too busy to take few days away from high stress work environment to mess with meds. Then, when work slowed down a bit, I forgot about the Zoloft .. . until today.

For three of the past five days, I've had strong paresethesia. The Zoloft is not up for reconsideration of a re-trial right now.

I do have a plan of sorts:
1. go to internist's office on Monday to request that reports of tests / procedures from three specialists be sent to her ( I saw those specialists in the fall). This requires that I track down the names of the three specialists and make a half hearted effort to find their phone numbers.
2. make an appt with the internist re the paresthesia


I need her to straighten out the paresthesia so I can take anti-depressants. My better hope is to take an anti-depressant that lets me start to taper down the Klonopin.
The problem is that I don't want to go for any more tests because
1. appts are time consuming and suck energy
2. co-pays with my insurance are high. I wonder how others at my work with our crappy insurance are doing. I'm guessing that they forego some procedures or at least put them off.

I think that internist will need tests. The blizzard of fall tests resulted in results that were fine. . . . I was told this by the specialists' offices. . . but she will need the test results for herself.
Whatever she asks of me needs to be cheap and not time consuming.

M

Do you have access to a fax machine? YOu could use this to help with the leg work. You will probably need to sign release forms, call and they could fax them to you and then you could fax these back.
just a thought.
good luck with all of this.
You are being very brave to go thru this again.
bizi

Bizi,

I think that the internist's office can handle the release forms and the faxing.
I have to go in person to have her staff do this.

M