Posted by Tony P on February 13, 2006, at 19:52:03
In reply to Re: Antidepressant time of onset, posted by crxsi on February 13, 2006, at 9:45:40
> I felt better the first day of taking effexor ...
I felt Effexor kick in within 4-5 days at 37.5 or 75 mg/day. Unfortunately, for me it caused too much anxiety to tolerate. Due to circumstances I couldn't take the time off to escalate the dose and see if better effects kicked in or the anxiety decreased. I may try it again if I hit another bad depressive episode and don't have time constraints. Happily, I got a really good bounce-back effect when I stopped taking it!
Wellbutrin similarly worked very quickly for me (week to 10 days) but also cause too much anxiety & insomnia - I seem to be hypersensitive to NE boosters.
Serzone also worked quickly - fixed my sleep disorder literally overnight, and a gradually increasing mood improvement over about 10 days. Alas, no longer available in Canada. It was the only med I have ever taken which really helped my sleep long-term and relieved my depression without significant side-effects.
> ... I am only on a low dose 75mg which I hear does not have much dopamine effect....
I am starting to think that dopamine is the unsung hero (or poor sister) of A/D therapy. It's talked about here but has such a bad rep elsewhere that I wonder how Wellbutrin managed to survive FDA attention! I suspect that SSRI's work in the long term for those for whom they DO work by some kind of indirect dopamine upreg, and vice versa for those for whom they don't work or poop out.
I read recently that caffeine boosts dopamine; I've been finding lately that two cups of good coffee does more for my immediate mood and my activity level than any Rx I've been on lately. ;-) And it works in under an hour! Can't ask for faster response than that. But if caffeine were discovered today would the FDA approve it?
poster:Tony P
thread:608626
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060212/msgs/609267.html