A friend's doctor recommended this because it is multi purpose like Pamelor.

DRUG CLASS AND MECHANISM: Doxepin belongs to a class of drugs called tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) that are used primarily to treat depression and anxiety. Other examples of TCAs include amitriptyline (Elavil), nortriptyline (Pamelor), desipramine (Norpramin), and several others. Depression is an all-pervasive sense of sadness and gloom. In some patients with depression, an imbalance in levels of neurotransmitters in the brain may be the cause of the depression. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that nerves use to communicate with each other. Neurotransmitters affected by doxepin include serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and histamine. Doxepin may elevate mood by raising the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine. It also blocks the activity of acetylcholine and histamine. The FDA approved doxepin in March 1974.

http://www.medicinenet.com/doxepin/article.htm

I'm not bragging; I'm just reinforcing and preaching to the choir the importance of being informed.

Doxepin is used to treat depression and anxiety. Doxepin is in a class of medications called tricyclic antidepressants. It works by increasing the amounts of certain natural substances in the brain that are needed for mental balance.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhe...68#a682390-why

Does it matter? IMHO it surely does to a pd patient.

Apart frpm being a TCA I know it's a potent antihistamine... Aren't TCA's the latest and greatest in treating depression in PD, btw?

xa

but i saw a video on the Doctors Channel that said nortriptyline may be the best for PD. in spite of it being so old. It has multiple qualities, is actually a nerve pain killer and an anticholinergic besides boosting epinephrine. i hadn't heard of doxepin until my friend called.

Paula, when I was languishing with a fibromyalgia diagnosis, long story, I was put on amytriptiline, which is supposed to be the mildest of this class of drug, and I was given the lowest dose....... and it was supposed to be a standard in the treatment of fibro ...... I was flooored by it - my son who was about 6 or 7 can still remember it, I was a heap on the floor for three days..... he had never seen his mom like this before. I was like a puppet whose strings had been cut...

That was one tablet.... I did try it once more, and has a more extreme and faster reaction. Obviously wrong drug, wrong person...... but I have often wondered whether this was because it simply put the balance of my neurotransmitters completely out of whack, rather than just being a 'bad' reaction, especially as further down the line it became obvious to me that the pain that had been attributed to fibro was actually a product of extreme rigidity...... I had never heard of an anti cholinergic then, but my guess is that it inhibited something way too much at that time......

It's written into my doctors notes that I should not be given any of this class of drug again. Nortryptiline is it's close cousin......

But trying to unravel these things in hindsight is a non-starter. I haven't ever wanted to go down the anti-depressant route again though..... BUT, from this and observing the effect the same drug has on a someone with MS who has extreme spasticity - and for whom it is a very useful treatment - I think that such drugs do have wide-ranging effects, and some of them may be more physical than mental.

Lindy