Posted by baseball55 on May 24, 2013, at 19:48:18
I was severely depressed for four years, was hospitalized several times and could not control suicidal thoughts, could not get out of bed, could barely function, didn't shower or eat. Dragged myself to work when I had to but since I'm a professor, I have a lot of down time. After a suicide attempt, I was started on 30mg parnate. It helped almost immediately. But I still had bouts of severe depression except now I was alert and agitated. I tried ECT, both unilateral and bilateral. Didn't help at all. I tried all the AAP's and they worked like magic but made me gain 2-3 pounds a week, even with thyroid and metformin. I gained 50 pounds.
Finally my p-doc said we had exhausted all medical solutions and he wanted me to work at DBT. I found a DBT therapist and she helped me get control of the suicidality. I went back on parnate and also lamictal, which helped control suicidal thoughts.
Since starting this regimen (parnate, lamictal and DBT), my depression is under control. Not completely gone. I still have to watch it and work with my p-doc and DBT therapist to deal with it. When I start to get depressed and agitated now, I take 15mg haldol and 2-3mg xanax and sleep for 14 hours or more. I usually wake up feeling better.
I also take 1mg xanax and 200 mg trazadone at bedtime to counter the parnate insomnia. I have never gone above 30mg parnate. That seems to be enough for me.
But basically, I consider myself to be cured of the worst of the depression -- the extreme pain and suicidality that lasts for weeks or months. I haven't had an episode longer that a few days in over a year.
poster:baseball55
thread:1044191
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130501/msgs/1044191.html