Posted by Another Phil on July 24, 2008, at 14:19:21
In reply to Re: Parnate Experiences/Help Please, posted by okydoky on July 23, 2008, at 12:05:35
My experience is unusual, but Parnate induced severe bipolar cycling for me (which I had never had before). At first, I didn't realize what was happening. Within three days of starting at 10 mg, I felt better than I had ever felt in my life. I didn't realize that I was manic at the time. About 10 days later, I crashed into the worst depression I've ever experienced. I simply couldn't function, crying hysterically nearly every waking moment. At 39 years old, I had to have my mom stay with me (a humbling experience, to say the least). My grossly irresponsible pdoc at the time pushed my dose higher and added in Depakote as a mood stabilizer. (Hmmm. Meds induce bipolar. Increase the dose and treat the bipolar symptoms. What could possibly go wrong?) I began ultra-rapid cycling for about two weeks: utterly non-functional in the mornings, gradually improving as the day went on. Eventually, things did even out (the sever cycling stopped), but the antidepressant effect wasn't great and there was a whole laundry list of really bad side effects (severe insomnia, severe constipation, myoclonic jerks, acne, and a bunch of other less annoying ones). Once I was out the crisis, I could finally think clearly enough to fire that awful pdoc (our relationship had become adversarial at that point) and get a new one who agreed that Parnate was a terrible drug for me and that I should get off of it. As I began to taper off of it, I started cycling again (living with mom again, see above) so my pdoc said there was really no downside to stopping cold turkey. I did, and went through about two weeks more of cycling, then the cycling stopped and hasn't returned. I went from being on the verge of hospitalization (which I resisted heroically, but probably should have done) to being merely miserable again.
I don't mean this to be an anti-Parnate rant, because I know it really works for a lot of people. In fact, Selegiline, another (albeit unusual) MAOI, really works well for me and gives me much more energy. Unfortunately, it also makes me kind of stupid (which, I know is the opposite of most people's experience). I'm sticking with it for now because the memory of relatively recent bad depression scares the crap out of me, but I know I can't stay on it forever. It's making it difficult for me to focus on any complex work.
Good luck to you.
Phil
poster:Another Phil
thread:840750
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080718/msgs/841806.html