Posted by Zellie on January 7, 2004, at 20:57:40
In reply to effexor and depression, posted by Lyrical13 on January 7, 2004, at 20:02:31
I was soooo happy to read that you are now feeling so much better.
Kindest regards,
Zellie
> I just thought of something else. I am on 225mg of Effexor XR. At first it was wonderful.. actually for probably 8 or 9 months after I got to a therapeutic level. But then my next cycle of depression hit. That's when I was increased eventually to 225mg but was still having so much trouble. very very depressed and thinking that I just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. I switched docs because my old one kept telling me to "wait" and I was falling apart at work..crying for no particular reason... sobbing and sobbing and I didn't even know why.
>
> My new pdoc told me that for my type of depression where I've tried several different ADs and have even maxed out a couple of them but was still having difficulty one med alone wouldn't do it. He said we needed to augment the Effexor in one of 4 ways (boost its effectiveness):
>
> 1. Another AD that worked on a different chemical
> 2. Thyroid medication
> 3. Mood stabilizer
> 4. Atypical AP
>
> I wanted to do thyroid because of very few side effects. But it would take quite a while to get up to a therapeutic level and I was barely hanging on. So I started SEroquel..an atypical AP because it would start working quickly. BAsically, a dose for a schizophrenic or other type of problem APs are prescribed for would be on a dose of 400-500mg. But for augmenting an AD teh max dose would be about 100mg. I started at 25mg. Within about 3 days I was significantly improved. By the end of the first week, I was about 200% better. AFter 2 weeks I increased to 50mg and now I am wonderful. That's my dose now. I made it through the holidays feeling better than I remember feeling since I was a small child. Usually at the end of vacation I feel a little bummed about going back to work. This time I felt perfectly fine...sometimes even cheerful. Still have normal range of emotions. I'm a bit hypomanic now, but I think that's because my true dx is BP2. But the above approach is designed to work for unipolar depression which is what I thought I was for the past 13 years.
>
> HOpe this helps.
>
> L13
poster:Zellie
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040105/msgs/297853.html