Posted by Chairman_MAO on October 1, 2011, at 15:07:13
In reply to Re: Memantine + Parnate: Day 4, posted by Seige on September 30, 2011, at 20:27:21
> I totally understand the reasoning there. Unfortunately its something I've already tried, up to 150mg/day (and I only weigh 70kg).
There are so many off-label options, I don't even know where to begin. I can tell you what generally worked for me, though:
(1) MAOI: I have tried Nardil (up to 120mg/day) and Parnate (up to 200mg/day). I "have" (I prefer to take a psychopharmacological approach, but let's just work with the conventions here) agoraphobia/social phobia in addition to dysthymia, just to give you an idea of what I was trying to treat. I eventually went off of Parnate because the ups-and-downs of it were too much to handle. If there was an extended-release preparation, I would have taken that around-the-clock and waited until I started sleeping again. I had to stop Nardil due to 50% body weight gain (at least 30% of which was due to not having access to Dexedrine for a few years).
Right now, I want to do Marplan. Doctor has done MAOI + dexedrine combination in the past, but said he didn't want to "go there yet". Gave me a sample pack of Viibryd. Absolutely horrible experience, had to give up before even getting to 40mg. Felt _awful_, physically and mentally.
(2) 60mg/day Dexedrine helps me, especially with an MAOI. I'm on clonazepam now and want to get off of it and back onto an MAOI without the weight gain) because they worked even better for the social phobia. Yay, benzo taper, fun! Anyway, back to you. Your doctor probably won't do this, but try asking to switch to Marplan. After you do that, ask too add a psychostimulant. Most won't do this, some will.
(3) Buprenorphine helped with motivation _a lot_. I wish I never stopped taking it. I took 4mg qid.
You can start off with as little as 0.3mg qid. The qid is important. This is off-label, but it is really a great treatment.I'm not a doctor, just some guy. But I've read a fair amount and I've tried all this stuff on my own body. ;-)
You may also want to look into pramipexole or ropinirole--those can work for anhedonia.
Best of luck.
poster:Chairman_MAO
thread:996139
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110925/msgs/998470.html