Posted by Tony P on May 13, 2004, at 20:05:31
In reply to Re: BUSPAR IS THE ANSWER/IS NOT THE ANSWER!!, posted by andie1970 on May 11, 2004, at 11:00:52
I am one of the (few?) Buspar success stories. It worked really well for me for many years, but as Zeugma posted, more like a mild A/D, no good for GAD or panic attacks. I felt there was some anxiolytic effect in that I could handle a stressfull day without coming home and blowing up at the wife or kids. BTW this effect happened immediately for me, about 1-2 hours after each dose, not after 7-10 days as stated in the monograph. But it was certainly nothing like the effect of the benzos.
It also proved to work really well for me with Serzone as an A/D enhancer, before that effect became widely known, giving me extra energy and positive outlook as well as stopping the stress-induced reactive depression I was getting.
Since I've been on Lamictal (currently 300 mg/day), the buspar seems to have no effect whatever, so I've dropped it. But it was good while it lasted! It seems this is one of those meds that either works really well for a person or does nothing at all. My experience with the effectiveness with Serzone versus Lamictal suggests it may also depend a LOT on what else you are on.
On the grapefruit issue, I've tried that, and the effect for me was noticeable but relatively small. It's worth trying (at least 8 oz of real grapefruit juice, and on an empty stomach worked best). My pharmacist also said that despite the warning the grapefruit effect is not really a big concern (as it is for some meds), and Buspar seems to have a pretty wide tolerance margin.
Tony
> I wholeheartedly agree! [snipped] ...I learned something I never knew before, and my wish is that is it can help anyone out there taking buspar, then great, because buspar did nothing for me (yes, it seemed like a placebo!) I read that when taken with grapefruit, the effect skyrocketed. i don't know why, something about what it metabolizes, or something, sorry i can't tell you more. But grapefruit is a strange thing, bad effects and good effects on different medicine, but unfortunately they don't seem to know enough yet, and only sometimes labal that on a bottle. Anyway, for those of you who do like buspar, grapefruit may help. if it does, please let us know! I would love to hear a buspar success story too! Thanks :)
poster:Tony P
thread:345326
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040510/msgs/346584.html