question about side effects

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
question about side effects
4
Mon, 10-25-2004 - 6:04pm
Hi, everyone. I'm new to this board, and I just wanted to know if anyone could tell me anything about sexual side effects as far as anti-depressants are concerned. When I was diagnosed (with Bipolar and Major Depressive Disorder), I was started on Lamictal and Lexapro (which I HATED, not so much the Lamictal, but the Lexapro). I've since stopped all treatment, because I'm foolish and I don't listen to people, and I know I need to go back to my doctor because I'm having full relapses and just a terrible time right now, but the one thing (however stupid it may seem) I'm scared of is what medications they'll put me on. Lexapro had a lot of bothersome side effects, including but not excluded to sexual side effects, which I really didn't like. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has taken/is taking or has experienced various anti-depressants and which ones do and do not cause any sexual or other serious side effects. Thank you, I really appreciate it!

-Lauren

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-04-2004
Mon, 10-25-2004 - 10:34pm

Hi Lauren!


Oh, I've been on just about every antidepressant and can identify with the frustration of the side effects.


All of the SSRIs (Prozac, Paxil, zoloft, Celexz, Lexapro, etc) have sexual side effects, and often cause weight gain also (Prozac and Zoloft possibly less so). Sometimes they can trigger anxiety as well. I'm very sensitive to all of them, and ended up on Klonipin to counteract the anxiety/agitataion i experienced with them (actually, all of the above). They definitely helped my depression, so I put up with the side effects. I'm also on Wellbutrin, which doesn't cause sexual side effects or weight gain, but can be activating as well. Finally, to add to my current large cocktail of meds (including Buspar and Neurontin for the anxiety), I'm on Remeron, which is really sedating, so I sleep great at night, but my pdoc believes it is the biggest offender for weight gain.


Recently I started cycling into hypomania and was diagnosed as Bipolar Type II. Since I sunk back into a severe depression even on all those meds, he started Lamictal, since it's a good antidepressant and also works as a mood stabilizer. ANd it doesn't have any effect on weight (or sex!). The hope is that once I get to a therapeutic dose, he can get me off some of

peace and love,

just_a_big_kid

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Tue, 10-26-2004 - 12:16am
Thanks for responding so quickly. The rambling was very helpful indeed!

I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through all of those medications! It really doesn't make much sense that something you're taking in order to get better can actually make you much worse. I only stayed on Lamictal long enough to get up to two 250 pills a day, and I rarely experienced any side effects with it. Lexapro was a different story, though. (Ugh.) It definitely increased my anxiety, and I felt much more depressed while I was taking it than I had experienced previously. My problem is that I give up too easily and too quickly, and I always assume that my doctor is "stupid" or that I know more than he/she does. I also really miss being hypomanic, like I have no control over being who I think is just myself, which, we all know isn't the way it works. My last doctor was the fifth I've tried within the last two years, and I only stayed with her for about six months before I wrote her off and considered myself "beyond cured." Oy.

I had heard things about Wellbutrin's lack of physical/sexual side effects. I definitely can't take Paxil, because I was on that once before and it almost made me psychotic. I wish it were possible to just ask your doctor to find an alternative medicine (that is, if you dislike the side effects to the ones you've already tried) that doesn't have any unwanted side effects. I don't know about everyone else, but if my medication was making me put on weight, I'd probably be more depressed!

Having this or any mental disorder is a huge side effect in and of itself; medications are the chemical miracles that make life more liveable.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 10-26-2004 - 9:51am
Hi Lauren and welcome! As for side affects, boy can I tell you about side affects! LOL! I am very sensitive to meds, apparently, and have been on TONS of them, so let's see...Sue was right about the SSRI's...I've been on most of them too and the only one that didn't cause many sexual side affects was Wellbutrin. However, it DID cause me HUGE anxiety problems and caused me to cycle big time. So that was out. I'm now taking Cymbalta, the newest anti depressant out...its more potent and works on both "sides" of the brain. Its been the ONLY drug that's worked on my depression and I'm only taking a half dose right now. I am having some anxiety, but I take Ativan to help with that. Most of the meds I tried only succeeded in making me worse, not better...and not anything CLOSE to stable...it really sucks, trying to find the "right" med combination. It wasn't until I stopped ALL my meds and then went on them one at a time, at very small doses, just very recently, that I have felt anything even close to being a HUMAN again. I was so overmedicated it was ridiculous. BUT, on the other hand, I do believe in medication. Its just a viscious cycle we're on and its not much fun. When I was so overmedicated, I HATED WHO I BECAME! UGH! I had no life anymore, no personality...but everyone is different. And you have to take charge of your own health. My doctor is wonderful, but I had to INSIST on NO MORE MEDS for a little while. About 3 weeks of nothing. Then I started back on a low dose of a mood stabilizer, Topamax. Still on that. Now, the Cymbalta, and Ativan, and I feel good again for the first time in a long time. Still have some cycling...but I did while i was on all that medicine too. So I decided that I will DEAL WITH IT. I know my triggers, and I know how to deal with my cycling. I know what my manias look like and how they start. So I just take it day by day.

Anyway, guess I went on and on and on there! :)

Hugs,

k.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-04-2004
Tue, 10-26-2004 - 11:18am

Keli -


Thanks for your input! I am on SO MANY meds right now. I believe that my pdoc knows what he is doing, and the plan now is to get up to a therapeutic dose of Lamictal, then start to wean off the other anitdepressants as tolerated, but if this doesn't work, I may have to ask him to do the same thing you did - get off everything and start from scratch. It's scary, because I am so tired of feeling this way, and of course I want an immediate fix, but I know that is unrealistic. I need to be more grateful for my "good" days instead of worrying about "bad" days that may or may not be coming up. I know that living in the day and acceptance of this disease is the solution.


peace and love,

just_a_big_kid