Posted by med_empowered on October 14, 2005, at 5:46:25
In reply to Wellbutrin hair is brittle and falling out!, posted by TrishP on October 14, 2005, at 5:26:05
hey! Hair loss seems to be an unfortunately common side-effect of psychiatric drugs...its more common with stuff like depakote and lithium, but it pops up with frightening regularity with other meds, too. Reading over your combo, I kinda wondered if maybe it isn't **just** the wellbutrin causing the hairloss. Next to Frisium (not available in the US), Klonopin is the strongest anti-convulsant benzo; its also linked to hair loss now and then. What I've noticed with my own med combos is that sometimes when 2 drugs have overlapping side effects, I won't get the side-effects if I only take 1 of the drugs...but, add the 2nd drug, and *bam* I end up with the side-effect in question. Just a theory ;-) . Anyway, if Wellbutrin helped you out some, but you need to switch it out, there are plenty of options. You could try Provigil, which is a straight-up (mild) stimulant; it won't have the same anti-depressant oomph wellbutrin does, but it can help with depression...equally important, it can have very beneficial effects on things like apathy, fatigue, lack of motivation, etc. Stronger stimulants would be an option, but...they can also cause hair loss. The more "activating" tricyclics present another possibility; Pamelor, for instance, could be helpful. The problems there would be dulled cognition, weight gain, and cardiovascular issues. Straterra is used now and then as an add-on; that might be useful, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Prozac could be a good idea...the only problem would be waiting for a response (Prozac, for whatever reason, needs a good 6-8 weeks for an "adequate trial"; the other SSRIs need about 2-4 weeks, and Lexapro often starts working a little bit faster than 2 weeks). If you wanted to try a combo, you could see if adding Pindolol and/or Buspar helped...both seem to speed up antidepressant response time a bit (in some people) and Buspar seems to help with sexual side effects and anxiety (again..in some people). Plus, Buspar might have some anti-akathisia action (thats why its sometimes co-prescribed with neuroleptics)...that could make the SSRI experience more tolerable. Effexor could be an option, but dosing is tricky, side effects can suck, and withdrawal is hell (can you tell I'm not an Effexor fan?). Cymbalta could help, but no one really knows much about it, and some people report *less* energy when they get up to the 60mgs "threshold dose". If you dont take one already, you might want to consider a multivitamin and/or a B-vitamin complex, and/or some zince/copper (you'll need to add copper if you're supplementing zince for an extended period of time). I've heard that some people get good results from SelsunBlue and other selenium-based shampoos. I can't explain this, but it seems to work for some people. Simplifying your med regimine a bit might help, too; if, for instance, you could just take a bit more Klonopin when you need help sleeping, that would reduce the # of meds you're taking...plus, since Klonopin is a semi-quasi-mood-stabilizer with a super-long half-life, you'd get some lasting additional anti-anxiety effects and possibly somewhat increased mood-stability. Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:566101
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051010/msgs/566735.html