Posted by 4WD on January 22, 2009, at 21:58:28
In reply to Re: Liver enzymes elevated due to Nardil --- Help?, posted by egg on January 22, 2009, at 18:25:28
There are a couple of things you could try. I took milk thistle (helps protect the liver against drugs) and for a while also took L-methionine (also protects the liver). I have heard that N-acetylcysteine also protects the liver but have never actually used that one since it's only available in health food places and not all of them at that. It's harder to find. But if you start on the milk thistle and L-Methionine, that should help.
Your post was actually encouraging to me - to find that Nardil has worked so succesfully for you for so long. One of the problems I had with SSRIs and SNRIs is that they all eventually pooped out. I have been on Nardil twice now. Last year I took it for about six months and felt during the last month that it wasn't working as well (and got tired of waking at 3 or 4 am. and got tired of the low blood pressure spells as well) so I decided to go off it and tried Cybalta for a while. It wasn't until I went off the Nardil that I realized how much it HAD been helping so about 3 months ago I went back on it. It isn't working right now but that's because I haven't given it a chance. I broke my back last year and after three years clean from opiate abuse, I had to be exposed to narcotics again because of the excruciating pain. That set off the whole addiction cycle again and I've been battling with it ever since. I know Nardil can't do its job properly with the narcotics on board but everytime I try to get through withdrawal I become severely depressed by the second or third day - even with Nardil. But I believe that when I have been clean a couple of months, the Nardil will begin to work again.
Hope the herbal suggestions help. Milk thistle can be found at most any pharmacy and L-methionine at larger ones or the GNC store.
Marsha
> Am attempting to bring this thread back to life given my recent ALT and AST readings, which were approximately 9 times what they should have been -- and I'm asking for help. There's a big chance I'm going to be taken off Nardil and I have no idea where to go next.
>
> A bit of background: Nardil is the only med that's ever controlled my PD. I've been taking it almost nonstop since 1984 (having lost two years of my life while doctors had me go the round of tricyclics and anti-p's). I couldn't walk in 1-inch heels without getting dizzy, wasn't able to complete sentences, had to stop working ... I lost everything.
>
> Nardil's effects were immediate for me, although it took a good decade to crawl back to a mostly mainstream life.
>
> Over the years I've attempted to go off Nardil completely, tried Knonopin alone (which I've taken with Nardil since 2003), and almost lost a job during a terrible experience with an SSRI (Paxil -- which worsened my insomnia, made my head feel like it was in a vise, and had me in a perpetual state of anxiety and heartburn).
>
> I am currently under a great deal of work and health-related stress, know I need to find a new primary care physician -- one who is more empathetic with "P" patients than the one I've been seeing -- and am also searching for a new therapist. (I usually see a therapist on a short term basis when I'm under stress, like now. My last one disappeared. Really.)
>
> Meanwhile, what med options are out there? I have enough Nardil for about three months and I need a game plan. I am seeing a homeopath and it's been my hope to get off Nardil eventually, but only when I am ready. I refuse to go back to where I was pre-Nardil. Ever.
>
> Insight? Options?
>
> I've been reading the boards since there was a Web, but I stopped posting years ago. I will not let that be the case again.
poster:4WD
thread:825419
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/875528.html