Dear fellow poop out club members:

I need your help. Friday I have an appointment with my psychiatrist
and I need to decide whether I want to try luvox or remeron next.

Here's my story: I had a sucessful run of zoloft for four + years
until four months ago when it croaked on me. I have since tried
several other meds, paxil, effexor, desipramine, higher doses of
zoloft etc, with either no results or too many side effects.
Tricylics may be out of the question as I am very sensitive to anti
cholinergic side effects.

I need your wisdom.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

I'm not a doctor. I was taking Prozac for four months and it"pooped
out". Effexor didn't work and now Luvox doesn't work. I may for you and,
of course, you should do what your doctor advises, but it didn't help
me.
Tom Lockwood

     Fluvoxamine (Luvox) is new to our market and might help, then again
it might not.  I'm going to say no for several reasons.  Mainly the
obvious one, Luvox is an SSRI and if most SSRI's haven't proven effective
then probably not.  It really depends on the reason for taking the SSRI to
begin with, is it for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or some
other disorder.  I have taken anti-depressants before and didn't like the
older tricyclics as well, but the SSRIs worked well for me.  If the
treatment is for obsessive-compulsive disorder then clomipramine
(Anafranil), fluoxetine (Prozac), and fluvoxamine (Luvox) are first line
medications.  Depression can be a much broader spectrum in biological
therapy armamentariums (eg. tricyclics, SSRIs, atypical ADs, and even
augmentation with lithium or other psychtropic {*filter*}).  One major reason
{*filter*} become ineffective is because of a cellular adaptiblity that occurs
with most if not all anti-depressants among others.  This can be a plus or
minus depending on treatment, and whether the drug ever provided relief at
all.  After several months of administration with anti-depressants your
body undergoes changes biochemically that effect certain cell receptors
and in essence allows your body to undergo altering of chemical levels,
receptor loss (in some cases), and a whole host of changes that don't
constitute tolerance, but physiological adaptibility.  These changes will
stay with most healthy individuals months after stopping the
antidepressant.  This doesn't occur with all {*filter*}, but psychotropic are
almost always prone to this.  This is why withdrawal occurs; your body
readapts to the normal chemical gene expression which is effected by these
{*filter*}, and abrupt discontinuation of certain {*filter*} will result in
withdrawal symptoms.  With antidepressants the withdrawal will usually
produce nausea, insomnia, and various other "mild" flu-like symptoms, but
barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates, and alchohol withdrawal can induce
deadly seizures without proper detoxification.  The answer really does
contain many variables and everone is different in how they react to
medicine.  Just hope this information helped in some way.  

Regards,
Chris  (pre-med for psychiatry, neurology, or infectious disease)

     Fluvoxamine (Luvox) is new to our market and might help, then again
it might not.  I'm going to say no for several reasons.  Mainly the
obvious one, Luvox is an SSRI and if most SSRI's haven't proven effective
then probably not.  It really depends on the reason for taking the SSRI to
begin with, is it for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or some
other disorder.  I have taken anti-depressants before and didn't like the
older tricyclics as well, but the SSRIs worked well for me.  If the
treatment is for obsessive-compulsive disorder then clomipramine
(Anafranil), fluoxetine (Prozac), and fluvoxamine (Luvox) are first line
medications.  Depression can be a much broader spectrum in biological
therapy armamentariums (eg. tricyclics, SSRIs, atypical ADs, and even
augmentation with lithium or other psychtropic {*filter*}).  One major reason
{*filter*} become ineffective is because of a cellular adaptiblity that occurs
with most if not all anti-depressants among others.  This can be a plus or
minus depending on treatment, and whether the drug ever provided relief at
all.  After several months of administration with anti-depressants your
body undergoes changes biochemically that effect certain cell receptors
and in essence allows your body to undergo altering of chemical levels,
receptor loss (in some cases), and a whole host of changes that don't
constitute tolerance, but physiological adaptibility.  These changes will
stay with most healthy individuals months after stopping the
antidepressant.  This doesn't occur with all {*filter*}, but psychotropic are
almost always prone to this.  This is why withdrawal occurs; your body
readapts to the normal chemical gene expression which is effected by these
{*filter*}, and abrupt discontinuation of certain {*filter*} will result in
withdrawal symptoms.  With antidepressants the withdrawal will usually
produce nausea, insomnia, and various other "mild" flu-like symptoms, but
barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates, and alchohol withdrawal can induce
deadly seizures without proper detoxification.  The answer really does
contain many variables and everone is different in how they react to
medicine.  Just hope this information helped in some way.  

Regards,
Chris  (pre-med for psychiatry, neurology, or infectious disease)

     Fluvoxamine (Luvox) is new to our market and might help, then again
it might not.  I'm going to say no for several reasons.  Mainly the
obvious one, Luvox is an SSRI and if most SSRI's haven't proven effective
then probably not.  It really depends on the reason for taking the SSRI to
begin with, is it for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or some
other disorder.  I have taken anti-depressants before and didn't like the
older tricyclics as well, but the SSRIs worked well for me.  If the
treatment is for obsessive-compulsive disorder then clomipramine
(Anafranil), fluoxetine (Prozac), and fluvoxamine (Luvox) are first line
medications.  Depression can be a much broader spectrum in biological
therapy armamentariums (eg. tricyclics, SSRIs, atypical ADs, and even
augmentation with lithium or other psychtropic {*filter*}).  One major reason
{*filter*} become ineffective is because of a cellular adaptiblity that occurs
with most if not all anti-depressants among others.  This can be a plus or
minus depending on treatment, and whether the drug ever provided relief at
all.  After several months of administration with anti-depressants your
body undergoes changes biochemically that effect certain cell receptors
and in essence allows your body to undergo altering of chemical levels,
receptor loss (in some cases), and a whole host of changes that don't
constitute tolerance, but physiological adaptibility.  These changes will
stay with most healthy individuals months after stopping the
antidepressant.  This doesn't occur with all {*filter*}, but psychotropic are
almost always prone to this.  This is why withdrawal occurs; your body
readapts to the normal chemical gene expression which is effected by these
{*filter*}, and abrupt discontinuation of certain {*filter*} will result in
withdrawal symptoms.  With antidepressants the withdrawal will usually
produce nausea, insomnia, and various other "mild" flu-like symptoms, but
barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates, and alchohol withdrawal can induce
deadly seizures without proper detoxification.  The answer really does
contain many variables and everone is different in how they react to
medicine.  Just hope this information helped in some way.  

Regards,
Chris  (pre-med for psychiatry, neurology, or infectious disease)

Note: I'm not a psychiatrist, but I've learned these things the hard way..
--
Kathleen MacConaill, Ottawa     {}     Chat, c'est moi!!!

Another option is to try a therapy, such as cognitive or interpersonal
psychotherapies. Each has something to offer.

Try St. John's Wort (hypericum perforatum).  300 mg of extract standardized to 0.3% hypericin, administered 3 times/day has been shown in several recent medical studies to be equally as effective as prescription antidepressants in the treatment of "mild to moderately severe" depression, but with a complete absence of side effects.  Check out Medline for specific studies, and/or check out http://www.hypericum.com
for comprehensive and unbiased info.

Incidentally, Prozac "pooped out" on me last year, and I've been taking SJW for the past eight months with excellent results and no side effects whatsoever.  Many of the major supplement companies have been introducing their versions of standardized SJW extract over the past couple of months due to increased awareness, so you will be able to find it easily at any local health cooking.net">food store.  Good luck!

David