Posted by viridis on September 22, 2002, at 11:30:17
In reply to Re: Unresponsive to SSRIs? What worked?, posted by viridis on September 22, 2002, at 4:06:10
Just a couple of other things:
1) In the above post, I didn't mean to imply that Wellbutrin is an SSRI -- my point was that neither Wellbutrin nor the SSRIs I've tried were effective, and all had serious side effects, whereas treatment with the combo I'm on now has been very helpful.
2) One thing that hasn't been mentioned is psychotherapy. I don't know if you've tried this, but if you do decide to abandon the medication route, therapy can be helpful and might enable you to better formulate a life-change strategy. Therapy (traditional and cognitive behavioral) has helped me somewhat at times, but in the last two cases, the therapists wound up recommending that I seek drug treatment. Each felt that there was a major biological component to my depression and anxiety that required medication. One strongly recommended stimulants because he picked up a substantial ADD component to my problems. I was reluctant to pursue this for quite a while, but when my current pdoc suggested Adderall, I tried it and found it a big help (along with Klonopin and Neurontin).
Some credible research indicates that a combination of therapy and medication can be the best approach for some people, and a good therapist might be able to help you make some long-term treatment decisions even if they can't prescribe medications themselves.
Good luck!
poster:viridis
thread:120163
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020922/msgs/120732.html