Posted by Racer on August 15, 2004, at 15:22:37
This is mostly academic, but I'm still curious, so thought I'd ask now, while it's still on my mind.
With all the talk of SSRI "poop out", it struck me that I'd never heard of TCAs losing their effectiveness. And then it occurred to me that I didn't know anything about long term effects of TCAs. Has anyone here taken any of the TCAs for long periods? If so, what were your experiences? Did it continue to be effective?
Specific to desimpramine, let's here those stories about its effect on your weight: did anyone gain weight? If so, how much? And, if so, have other A/Ds also caused you to gain weight, and was it more or less than on the desimpramine? Did desipramine cause you to feel sedated, apathetic, or emotionally numb? And did the effects on your mood change over time? What side effects did you experience on it?
Extra credit questions: for anyone who's taken a TCA, or MAOI for that matter, who has experienced problems with hypotension, did you try Florinef? If so, how was it? And, if not, did the hypotension resolve itself at all once you'd gotten through the adjustment period, or did it continue to be a problem? (And, how much of a problem was it?)
Basically, I'm looking for information that will help me both adjust to the idea of being medicated for life in the first place, and also to help in choosing the best medications for that long term treatment. If TCAs have a better long term track record than the newer drugs, and the hypotension can be mitigated or will resolve once I've adjusted to the medication, *and* they don't cause you to suddenly grow new limbs or something after several years, then that's the route I'm likely to explore -- once I get out of Dr EyeCandy's Treats Shoppe and into a private psychiatrist's office where there will be better resources for minimizing the adverse effects and treating both hypotension and weight gain.
Thanks, everyone!
poster:Racer
thread:377967
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040811/msgs/377967.html