Posted by ShelliR on November 28, 2002, at 17:29:45
In reply to never tried MAOI's on heavy regiment now, sug.??, posted by temoigneur on November 28, 2002, at 16:27:41
Hi Ben,
I'm glad that you are still feeling hopeful.
My recollection is that it is another MAOI, nardil, which is the most successful with social phobia and generalized anxiety. Is there a reason why your psychiatrist is suggesting parnate over nardil?I was on nardil for many years and it was very successful for me. In the past few years it lost its effectiveness; still, my success on it had lasted over twenty years. Actually I started when I was about your age. I also augmented with either valium or klonopin: valium worked better for me with panic attacks, but had a bad name as an "addictive" drug, although according to my pdoc, the difference is minimal. Klonopin was also fine, just took a long time to "hit" and I think it is a better drug to take on a regular basis than as a prn.
I have never been successful with the SSRIs; when nardil pooped out, I tried parnate, but it made me way too sleepy. When I added lamictal to nardil, it again worked very well. Unfortunately I gained fifteen pounds of water weight and went off the lamictal. When I tried the combination again, it didn't give me the same success. I was so depressed by that time, I would have gladly accepted those fifteen pounds back in exchange for losing the depression.
Since you were successful at first with prozac, I wonder if it's worth trying another SSRI, maybe lexapro, before making the decision to go through the long waiting period to rid your body of effexor and prozac before trying parnate or nardil. Or have you tried other SSRIs, also unsuccessfully?
I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time, and I think it's good that you are thinking about MAOIs as a possibility; I think they are way under-used and can be a miracle drug for many of us with difficult to treat depression.
Shelli
poster:ShelliR
thread:129768
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021127/msgs/129782.html