Posted by bleauberry on June 17, 2009, at 17:54:22
In reply to Re: giving up)to all, posted by ihatedrugs on June 17, 2009, at 15:49:13
Savella. Cool. I am in your corner cheering for you.
My doctor also prescribed Savella for me yesterday. Though my doses will be extremely lower than yours. I'll probably be dividing a 12.5mg tab into quarters and doing just two or three spread out in a day, with a long timeframe of increasing if needed.
For me Savella has an almost instant boost beginning day 2 or 3. Then it goes sour, feeling maybe more depressed and definitely fatigued. But then gradually toward the end of week 2 I realize I have come a long way and things are on the right path.
Side effects have stopped me in the past because I was too aggressive with dosing. Lack of appetite and difficulty going pee were tough. I've heard those go away if you can stick with it for a month. I will try.
Sleep. The first two or three nights, your sleep may not be very good. But from that point forward, Savella actually provides a very good quality sleep. It is not a sedative. It doesn't help you fall asleep. But once you are asleep, you really sleep. Unlike the bizarre frightful dreams I usually had on benzos, antipsychotics, and sleep meds, Savella gives me these long pleasant or neutral interesting dreams that just go on and on. I was surprised to see insomnia as a side effect, because it really is very positive for good sleep architecture. I guess they had to report those side effects since they probably did happen frequently within the first few days of trials. I doubt anyone toward the end of those trials was having any problem sleeping. My experience says the final dose should be taken with the evening meal, not at bedtime. A bedtime dose messed with sleep, but an earlier evening dose enhanced sleep.
At askapatient.com there are already 2 reports from people who have just tried Savella. One, they felt great for two weeks, got extremely fatigued, and stopped. I think that was a mistake. They should have reduced the dose instead and given it time. The second said it worked good and they felt like their old self again, but had to stop due to high blood pressure.
I have read reports of various people who were in the clinical trials. The moral of the story with Savella is...the longer you stay patient with it, the better it gets. One person didn't respond until 3 months. Another not until 9months. Most responders do so within 4 to 12 weeks. But when it kicked in, it kicked in full. Some people dropped out due to side effects. You and me have the luxury of modifying our dose so as to buy some time. In a clinical trial they showed that low dose Savella worked just as good as normal dose, except that the low dose took twice as long.
If I were you, I would use a minimum amount of sleep aid the first few nights, and only if you absolutely can't do without them, and from that point on do not use them. I fear that too many variables in the mix could screw up the whole brew.
Savella rapidly desensitizes the 5ht1a receptor, which is thought to be one of the reasons it can work quickly. It is better for moderate and severe depression than it is for mild depression. It is especially good for post-stroke depression, depression in elders, and anhedonic depression. It has been tested for various types of depressions and genders but performed equally across the board.
Speaking of mixes, these things have proven effective in combination with Savella, either in case studies or clinical studies...
Low dose Risperdal
Low dose Zyprexa
Pindolol
And in Japan they combine it with either Paxil or Luvox.In the mention of Risperdal, it was a case study with 5 nonresponders or partial responders to Savella...all treatment resistant patients...4 out of 5 of them experienced rapid (within 1 week) remission when low dose Risperdal was added. Another lady got terrible akathisia from Risperdal, and a switch to Zyprexa brought her to remission.
Stahl says that it has dopamine reuptake properties as well, because in the part of the brain where Savella prevents reuptake of NE, dopamine is usually taken up in those NE neurons.
I hope there will be minimum other meds in your mix, because they could screw up the whole deal. Savella doesn't need much help. It just needs to have the stage without competition and some time.
I'll be your cheerleader. Keep me posted.
poster:bleauberry
thread:901193
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090611/msgs/901580.html