Posted by JohnWatford on April 20, 2016, at 3:34:27
In reply to Re: Escatilopram with Nortriptylene and Valdoxan » JohnWatford, posted by Tomatheus on April 19, 2016, at 23:17:29
> Hello, and welcome to Psycho Babble. My opinion on your situation is that giving the two medications that you're currently taking some time to determine what their effects will be after a few more weeks or so would make the most sense, as long as you're not in a crisis, and as long as you're not experiencing any adverse effects that might prompt your doctor to make some changes to your medication regimen. I definitely think that it would be best to evaluate how taking nortriptyline along with Lexapro will affect you a little further down the line before putting too much thought into adding a third medication into the mix.
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> As far as my thoughts on Valdoxan are concerned, I tend to think that the medication would likely be more beneficial for individuals who have trouble staying asleep and might also have problems with waking up too early, as compared to individuals who sleep excessively and tend to have a lot of difficulty waking and getting out of bed. One of the things that Valdoxan does is basically mimic the effects of the hormone melatonin at two of the receptor sites that the hormone binds to, and melatonin is secreted when we're exposed to darkness and is thought to help regulate sleep. Valdoxan also has pharmacological actions that don't involve the melatonin system, such as blocking one of the serotonin receptors, the 5HT2C receptor. I haven't taken Valdoxan, but I have taken melatonin supplements, and those seemed to worsen my depressive symptoms. I should note that I sleep excessively and have a difficult time waking up and getting out of bed due to extreme morning fatigue when I'm not responding well to treatment, and melatonin basically made these problems worse.
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> What does your sleep look like, particularly when you're not receiving or responding to treatment?
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> Tomatheusthank you so much for responding - this is my first time on a chat forum so to speak so I am very happy somebody came forward. Interestingly, today, it seems the 20 mg escitalopram finally kicked in. This is the first day that my depression and anxiety have diminished significantly - but I am not sure it is simply just a "one off". Anyway, I am still on 10 mg Nortrip (therapeutic dose is minimum 50 mg subject to blood tests which is a few weeks away). But I am feeling so much better today and I feel when I see my doctor in 12 days I will maybe drop the Nortrip. On sleep, I wake up several times a night - love my sleep - and have short cat naps during the day. I have no problem (physically) getting out of bed in the morning - but when one is depressed, it is better to just lie in bed. i might wake at 0530 but I just stay in and and "veg" until 0700 when I just jump out of bed as I know it is wrong to stay. I ride my bike every day too (and drink wine which is, I know, not good). But this is the first day I am coping after a horrendous time getting used to escitalopram. If I could feel this way every day I would call it a miracle drug but the the 14 weeks to get here have been hell! I think the lexapro probably works for everybody but people just give up early as the side effects like increased anxiety are so horrible.
poster:JohnWatford
thread:1088305
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160331/msgs/1088314.html