Posted by Maicoguy on March 2, 2004, at 18:28:53
In reply to Re: Methadone for depression for me??, posted by geeper16 on February 27, 2004, at 18:20:02
Just found this thread. I have some experience with this so here goes... First the good stuff.
Having been on antidepressants for 10 years now I can tell you that methadone was a Godsend for me. (Or so I thought) I found it quite by accident when a friend who is in pain managment gave me some. I took all my depression symptoms away in 1 hour. This was stunning since all the normal antidepressant drugs only made life survivable but not "better". I accually felt like everyone else...able to cope with everyday problems and find some purpose in life. I asked my Doc about this and he had never known about using methadone for depression. He consulted someone and gave me a script for 10mg/day. It felt like I had my life back! I was able to get a job and work all day with no fatigue. This wasn't a "high" kind of drug, it simply gave me a mood boost that no anti depressant could do. The Doc couldn't believe it ether as I went through about 10 different medications with no success.
Now the other side...
I went on this for about 6 months with no problems then I noticed that 10mg wasn't working as well as before. I went to 15mg and all was well for a few weeks then the same thing happened. I noticed I was sweating alot more than before and seemed to be slightly short of breath. Unfortunatly for me I had stopped taking my normal A/D a few weeks before since I was sure that this drug was the answer. The old feelings started coming back unless I increased the dose. I told this to my Doc and he told me to slowly decrease the meth. to get off it as he was worried now about a possible addiction. Well I can tell you I went through two weeks of hell. My depression came back 10 fold as I had no A/Ds in my system. The withdrawal symptoms for methadone are horrible. I almost ended up in the Psych ward with that one. It was the worst experience of my life. It took about 3 months to get back to what was "normal" depression.
Lessons learned...
Will I ever take this drug again?...I really don't know. Nothing has made me feel better like this. But like anything else there's a price to pay. I've since read that methadone does some kind of damage to the bone marrow if used for long periods of time. More research needs to be done with synthetic opiates and how they work on the nervous system regarding depression. I've since went on to other treatments including trans-cranial stimulation.
My advice...
Please look into all the facts before trying this option and don't just stop the regular anti depressant treatment while on the meth. Do I think this is a valuable path to take?...it depends on the person and how really bad the depression is. If I were suicidal, this would be my first choice but it's no "cure".
poster:Maicoguy
thread:318084
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040228/msgs/319483.html