I have been on Effexor for years; it’s an antidepressant with a little anti-anxiety for good measure. For me, the side effects were bearable. (I admit that the lack of orgasms was frustrating, but it was outweighed by the lack of intimacy from being sad and distant.)
About two years ago, I noticed that this medication wasn’t quite doing the job for me anymore. The haunting symptoms of PTSD and depression were coming more often: bouts of blues lasted longer, panic sat on the edge of my mind, lack of desire for anything. First, the doctor gave me Paxil instead of my usual medication. I didn’t like it, fatigue and drowsiness kept me from doing anything. Next, we tried Prozac. No dice, I didn’t feel any different.
A change of health insurance, and doctors, last year led to a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Hooray! Maybe this is the source of my depression! A few months on synthetic thyroid hormones, I was still depressed, so I requested Effexor. A couple of months after that, I discovered my pregnancy and the doctor told me stop taking the medication right away. Fearing what this drug may have done, I followed his orders.
Once I found an Ob, she told me that quitting my medication cold turkey wasn’t the best thing to do. She recommended Zoloft. At the time, I opted to stay off any SSRIs.
Today, since I have PubMed access at work, I’m doing a little research on antidepressants and pregnancy. I have been pretty fucking miserable for the past few weeks, and something has to be done.
le sigh My search for pharmaceutical “true love” continues. . .
:rolleyes: IANAD, but doesn’t everyone know that’s a bad idea? I’m glad your OB said otherwise and is open to these meds, although I also understand the urge to not take any chances with the baby.
Lexapro is working OK for me, but of course that’s just me.
I refer to this doctor as “Retro Scary Doc.” He may be conservative when it comes to these things. A friend who is trying to get pregnant told me that both her regular doctor and her OB/GYN are hesitant about antidepressants, but she insists on taking them. Both of us are a doc’s worst nightmare: we work in research, so we’re used to looking things up on our own.
SSRI’s I tried made me want to shoot myself, I had excellent results from Wellbutrin for about a year, then pretty good for the 2nd, then it wore off. Currently I doing ok with amino acid supplements for the precursors to the neurotransmitters that Wellbutrin effects and hoping the Rx will work again after a long enough wait. No idea about pregnancy risks will wellbutrin, no sexual side effects though. Best wishes, email if you want.
The Effexsor was prescribed by a psychiatrist - I paid full price for that and the meds because my health insurance didn’t cover it. :mad: The other drugs were given to me by a regular MD.
Right now, I’ve got seven ( :eek: ) journal articles on SSRI’s and pregnancy. Also, I need to brave the health insurance website for mental health coverage information. (I’m now on Mouse_Spouse’s insurance and I have no idea what there policy is on mental health/psychiatric care.)
I joined a study involving pregnant women. The doctor running everything was going over my medical history. I told her that my mother has some sort of mood disorder, but has never been to professional for diagnosis or treatment. My father attempted suicide. Father and brother are both alcoholics. . . etc. After some thought, I said, “We’re a bunch of prefectly healthy crazy folks.”
Poor Mouseling, hopefully s/he will get a better hand from the genetic deck.
Mouse_Maven, my sympathies for having lost your ability to be treated by Effexor. I’m in the same position you are - after having been on Effexor for the past decade (mostly) I finally had to accept last fall that it wasn’t doing the job anymore. So now I and my psychiartrist are trying to find a new medication. Unfortunately, the first one tried made my feet swell something fierce. And I was so focused on the ‘normal’ SSRI side-effects I didn’t put two and two together to realize that my problems with edema had begun almost the same week I’d tried the citalpram (I may have that name wrong.)
Now that my feet no longer hurt to walk on, and the sores are starting to fade, I’m going to be going onto Paxil this week to try it out. What fun, more new SSRI side-effects to guage.
(BTW, am I the only person heard the name Zoloft and felt it had to be the name of one of the scientists or engineers involved with Germany’s Vergeltungswaffens? “Ja, Herr Zoloft, the Vergultungswaffen is ready for launch!”)
Good luck to you. The feet swelling sounds truely awful I have been lucky that the side effects have been mostly small: anorgasmic, moody, sleepy, etc. I heard on the news about a blood test they have now that can determine what SSRIs may work best. It may be worth looking into.
To me, Effexor always sounded like a villian’s name. I am the EFFEXOR!! Wah-ha-ha-ha!! Along those lines: Prozac sounds like a political stance, and Paxil would be a good name for an extraterrestrial. Who comes up with these names anyway?
I will be going back on antidepressants after having been off them for about 5 years. I’m not as anxious/depressed as I was back then, but I could see it heading down that road as it’s already worsened over the last month or two.
I tried Paxil, which worked, but I put on a lot of weight. (I am 5’2" with a fairly small frame, so I looked kinda plumpy.) I tried Effexor, which also worked. I don’t really remember the side effects.
In taking an antidepressant this time around, the possible side effects I am most concerned with are tiredness (I am tired enough already) and lack of sex drive/orgasmability (I’m aware that’s not a real word).
Good luck to you. At least you were wise enough to start treatment before things got really bad.
I’ve been on Zoloft for a month now. So far, so good. Right now I’m trying to figure out if the moods swings and lack of motivation have more to do with being pregnant, work stress or something I need to see a therapist about.
I could probably use some, myself. But I’m scared of the side-effects, so I’m hoping my “STOP MOPING” self-therapy (patent pending) will start working soon. I was on Effexor way back, and I got chubby pretty quick (and it’s been hell getting rid of it since then even though I stopped the pills long ago). And I can’t afford to lose my sex drive, as that’s one of my few sources of contentment. How is getting fat, sluggish, and unsexy supposed to make me feel better?
So I feel your pain, guys. Hope everyone gets things straightened out and can start seeing a little sunshine.
I gained weight with Effexor, and your right, its very stubborn. (Mouse_Spouse and I had a big discussion - not quite a fight - about my body image issues. I’m very concerned about gaining more pounds, Spouse wants a healthy child and doesn’t care how much I gain.)
Some drugs don’t have sexual side effects - I think Prozac is one of them. I’ve always been a fan therapy: you can talk to someone, get a lot off your chest, and know that the person you were talking to is ethically bound not to repeat what you said.
Prozac can have lots of sexual side effects. All of the SSRI’s can as far as I know. Unfortunately, science and modern medicine aren’t up to the task of figuring out which medication will work for you other than educated guesses. That is why they keep developing more SSRI’s and related drugs even though their basic psychopharmacology sounds similar on paper. I am a very stable bipolar person now but I cycled through lots of the SSRI’s and other drugs like Effexor over a few years. I had a paradoxical reaction to the SSRI’s and became suicidal and almost completely dysfunctional. Effexor sent me into some truly crazy stuff that ended up with me almost literally dead and family members devastated.
The best thing you can do is give every drug an honest chance and then move on as soon as you see undesirable effects that make it either not worth it or just not effective. Psychiatrists are a little different from other types of doctors. They are sitting there with lots of different drugs at their disposal but they don’t have any simple tests that can tell them what is working and what isn’t. An informed patient has to work with their doctor and be an active part of the decision making.
It might take a year or more to figure out what works best or you might hit it on the next try. Don’t give up and always be honest with your doctor. Don’t accept a medication that isn’t honestly improving your life.
You don’t want to gain so much that it affects your health (such as blood pressure). Your health and your baby’s health can’t be separated now.
You may be having a little trouble with depression because of your hormones too. That can make a difference. You need to have an OB whose opinion you can trust!
I have a long history of depression (it seems to run in the family, both of my parents attempted suicide at one point in their lives), hypothyroidism and a developing embryo. Its an endocrinogical nightmare!
Body issues is something I have always had. Taking Effexor in my late teens triggered weight gain and I haven’t been able to get rid of the extra pounds. (I’ve been a very active vegetarian and a lump with poor eating habits, my weight remained the same - more than I would like to be.) Pregnancy has made me very nervous about how my body is changing, which may be adding to the depression.
Wonder is anyone is doing drug tolerance research?
