Posted by ace on April 18, 2005, at 22:36:48
In reply to Re: Switching from Nardil to Anafranil » ace, posted by temoigneur on April 18, 2005, at 22:26:22
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> > > 2. What has been your experience on Anafranil? (I had one course of it years ago, but in combination with lithium and an AD I can't remember--which didn't work out too well).
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> > Tried it 3 times. Coyuldn't get past the first 3 days.
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> > 1. Exremem sedation
> > 2. Made my anxiety and derealization worse
> > 3. Made depression EXTREMELY bad.
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> > > Thanks for your thoughts.
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> > > Greywolf
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> > Good luck dude!
> > ace
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> "After all the meds you tried, I wouldn't even bother with Anafranil....I would absolutely got to a low dose of an atypical antipsychotic."
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> I've lost track of who's saying what to whom, but I had to interject here - Almost like Ace and others I had tried nearly everything, common and obscure for OCD and anxiety, except for Anafranil. I had been put on it while in university, and I desperately wanted something that would clear the anxiety/OCD quickly. I don't remember exactly, but I think I started on too high a dose, and had heavy anticholinergic side effects - felt like my head was going to spin off. I went off it, and had no interest in trying it after a long trial of imipramine. TCA's make me dull, numb, groggy, and completely kill my creativity.
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> However, a few years later, after tramadol + Effexor, landed me in the hospital with anxiety, I was slowly titrated up on clomipramine. It, like other TCA's killed my creativity and emotions, etc, but I have experienced a steady improvement in OCD symptoms over the past 6 months, to the point where I'm now virtually asymptomatic. I'm still, however, very vegetative and dull, so Prozac, will likely be added, and other strategies tried, but if I can retain the anti obsessional effects of clomipramine, and rid myself of the anhedonia I will be extremely happy. I'll keep you posted, (just prod me; bentley79@hotmail.com) but I'm optimistic about my prospects with clomipramine + an activating agent - I was a horrific mess before going on clomipramine.
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> For me, A-typicals, did little to nothing, to diminish OCD - never tried geodon, or abilify. I was at the U.S. national anxiety disorder conference and a clinician from a prominent OCD treatment center said from the thousands of cases he's seen, at a 'good average response to an SSRI's, (not including clomipramine) would be a 45% decrease in OCD symptoms, whereas clomipramine can effect a 65% improvement - when it can be tolerated - slow titration is often imperative.
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> Ben
Ben -- thanks heaps for this reponse...maybe i should give Anafranil a go -- but then again, the atypicals stop my OCD preety much around 80%, depression is my main prob now,,,take care mate!
ace
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poster:ace
thread:485950
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050418/msgs/486262.html