Posted by zeugma on June 26, 2004, at 22:17:17
In reply to Strattera Survey, posted by Torque on June 26, 2004, at 13:10:13
> Does anyone have experience with this drug? If so please provide the following:
>
> Starting dose:18 mg am.
>
> Maintenance dose:80 mg am.
>
> Side effects:Constipation, dry mouth, dry skin, some miscellaneous GI upset, eventual severe fatigue.
>
>
> Overall Effect:It helped a lot with focus. And I suppose it was also good for motivation. A definite antidepressant effect. But the fatigue it caused was too great for me to bear, considering I suffer from terrible fatigue anyway. It also made my mind somewhat 'inflexible', which kept me from getting too distracted at work, and which made me focus narrowly on things- obviously both good and bad. My performance ratings at the job I had at the time shot up when I started taking it. The job called for repetitive and boring tasks, and did not call for any imagination or initiative, so Strattera was perfect. It became a poorer fit when I got another job that called for more imagination and flexibility. The energy drain by the end was awful, and was the reason I went off it.
>
> List other meds your taking: nortriptyline 75 mg, buspirone 30 mg, clonazepam 1 mg.
>
> Comments:I've already made some comments, but I will talk about how the Strattera combined with the nortriptyline: Strattera is a new drug, but I am not convinced that it is all that different from the old TCA's, including nortriptyline, although the Lilly Co. would like people to think so. The side effects I described above are identical to those of a less sedating TCA. In fact it is harsher on the system overall than the TCA. I argued a lot with my pdoc about how similar the drugs were, and he insisted that Strattera worked on a different part of the brain from the old TCA's, even though its major property (norepinephrine reuptake inhibition) is identical. In the end i realized that Strattera was more fatigue-inducing than nortriptyline and dumped it.
>
> Thanks
>
poster:zeugma
thread:360494
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040621/msgs/360840.html