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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by brian on June 8, 2000, at 15:13:35
Has anyone tried these to help combat Celexa side effects?
I started taking Celexa one month ago. I began with a 20mg dose for two weeks, then 30mg for two weeks. I am about to begin 40mg.
So far the benefits have been great, if fleeting. After 2 weeks on 20mg, I felt good for about 2-3 days. A week after upping to 30mg, I felt really good for about a week. I'm hoping 40mg will be the "magic dose."
I'm pretty sensitive to medications. If there's a side effect to be had, I'll experience it. On Celexa, my side effects have been:
Difficulty sustaining an erection
Difficulty achieving orgasm
Insomnia, or the sensation of very light sleep
A little foot tapping during the day
Sleepiness, especially in the morning and early afternoon. (Two large coffees and a liter of Diet Coke, and I could still nap easily)
SweatingDespite all of this, Celexa's benefits have thus far outweighed the minuses of its side effects. Now if I could just do something about the minuses...
I went to my doc today, and told him about the side effects. He recommended that I take Ginseng/Ginko and a vitamin B complex to combat the sleepiness. Does anyone here have any experience with these. Are there other meds/techniques that can help with SSRI side effects?
Posted by JohnL on June 8, 2000, at 18:21:04
In reply to Ginseng/Ginko and Vitamin B with Celexa, posted by brian on June 8, 2000, at 15:13:35
Does anyone here have any experience with these. Are there other meds/techniques that can help with SSRI side effects?
Brain,
Those are so/so OK ideas, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did little for you. I mean, there have been studies where ginkgo was used to combat SSRI sexual probs, but we just don't see it actually helping anyone very much. At least not here. Sometimes, but not very often. Ginkgo to me wasn't much more than taking a vitamin with a tiny bit of stimulant to it. Tiny bit. Same with ginseng. Ginseng has been cited as causing mania in some cases. Geez, I wish it would have with me. But again, to me it was just another fairly neutral supplement. With either of these, and ginkgo in particular, if they are to be of benefit they usually require quite a long period of time to show any benefit.For the sexual dysfunction, you might try a $9.99 bottle of GNC brand yohimbe herbal supplement, available at GNC stores or Rite-Aid drug stores. Other more expensive varieties are available, but I think GNC is more focused on the active ingredient yohimbine. I tell you what, it blows Viagra in the weeds. At least for me anyway. Talk about desire, pleasure, performance. Wow. I'm don't think it would help the delayed orgasm, but it would definitely help the erection, and it would definitely boost the pleasure enough that you wouldn't want the delayed orgasm to be fixed anyway! For ten bucks it's worth a shot. Yohimbine has been FDA approved for sexual dysfunction for a long time. It is available in the herbal supplement yohimbe. I like GNC brand the best.
BUT...disclaimer here...it comes with its own side effects. As a matter of fact, I don't think it really works unless you do have the side effects. They are...mild to moderate agitation, a hot body feeling, general unease, restlessness, followed by temporary insomnia. The good news is these side effects don't last long. Maybe three hours or so. But for an antidote for sexual dysfunction of all kinds, yohimbe--even with its side effects--works pretty darn good. It's not a mild neutral kind of supplement like gingko or ginseng. It's powerful stuff. Break a tablet in half in the afternoon just to feel it out before getting fully committed. That's what I did anyway.
For the tiredness during the day, here again yohimbe can kill two birds with one stone. It is activating. For that purpose, just a half tablet might do the trick, and get you primed for a good night of loving at the same time.
The option of taking a small dose prescription stimulant like Ritalin is even better though. You might ask your doctor next time for that.
There are lots of options for the light sleeping insomnia thing. In the herbal arena there are things like passion flower, valerian root, hops, chamomile, and combinations of all these. I think of them all, valerian and passion flower worked best in my experimentation.
In the prescription arena, 7.5mg Remeron will definitely do the trick. You'll wake with a hangover kind of feeling that goes away with your first coffee. And for the first week it can be sedating during the day, but that does go away, especially at that low dose. I've taken Remeron 7.5mg for sleep for a long time. It's the best remedy of them all for me. Other options are benzos like Xanax. My pdoc prescribes them all the time for sleep. Other doctors don't like to, because of addiction potential. But that is not often a concern at the low doses needed for sleep.
Anyway, I'm glad the Celexa is working. Unfortunately battling the side effects is sometimes just as tricky as battling the depression. But hopefully you will get some ideas here to try. One of them will work.
JohnL
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