Posted by circusboy on May 2, 2006, at 10:09:31
In reply to What should I try next?, posted by jms600 on May 1, 2006, at 17:55:06
During the treatment of my first diagnosed depression, my pdoc worked me up to 200mg Zoloft with no effect. Then he added lithium.
9 months of depression lifted in three days. It was fantastic. An SSRI + lithium is a pretty classic, tried-and-true combo, so even conservative docs are usually willing to give it a try (unless you're contraindicated in some way).
Why am I not still on that combo? Well, Zoloft at 200mg made me, uh... impotent, and lithium never came up in any pdoc's future brainstorming.
Another suggestion might be a noradrenergic, like desipramine. See my recent thread for my desipramine experiences -- I had to quit due to the side effects, but it certainly worked. My underinformed hypothesis is that a partial response to Prozac after other SSRIs failed may predict a good response to a norepinephrine drug, since Prozac's the most noradrenergic in its class.
Yes, there's Effexor...but as we've both experienced, it's just kinda no good for a lot of people. Cymbalta as well seems to be developing a similar reputation.
poster:circusboy
thread:638906
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060429/msgs/639172.html