antidepressant medications | Arthritis Information

I am interested in members experiences with the various anti- depressant medications.Considering most of us are on numerous medications, how does that affect the choices made by the doctor in terms of interactions and concurrent use of pain medications? Are any of them "better" / "worse" for people with RA?

I have an appointment in a few days. I would appreciate any comments or experiences of the group including any side effects you have noticed.

Thank you, possibly depressed Doglady

I take Zoloft, which helps quite a bit with pain (for me anyway). Interactions have not been a problem. When I first started using it, it made me a bit jittery and nauseated, and I lost my appetite for a few weeks. I think I lost a couple of pounds. Most antidepressants can be kinda icky for the first few weeks, but you quickly acclimate to the side effects as the drug begins to kick in. I have been on most of the anti-depressants at one time or another, but unfortunately the ones that do work for me have too many side effects.

You may want to start with Cymbalta, which has been used quite a bit for fibromyalgia, which many of us also have. I found Wellbutrin to be the best in relieving pain, and it's advertised as not depressing the sex drive as many of them do.

I don't have much knowledge about whether one anti-dep is better than another in terms of not interacting with other meds. If you're interested in supplements to help with depression, SAM-e is excellent, but there is one study that concludes it might interfere with methoetrexate. St. John's Wort is another one, but I understand it interferes with birth control pills, and maybe some other meds.

I hope you find something that works well for you.

I am on 20mg of paxil a day. Not for depression, but for anxiety. It calms my anxiety down about 85%. I have social anxiety disorder, before paxil i couldn't look at the waiter or anything. Last night i got the manager for yelling to lol.

I love paxil and don't know what i would ever do without it.

hi , i'm bipolar, so i've been on antidepressants, for ages.

I'm on prozac, works good, Wellbutrin is also a good one.

The thing, is you're most likely going to have to "experiment" to find the one , that works for you. Every one has their own body chemistry.. personally i hate Lithum.. passionately, it made me almost catatonic, after 3 days, i quit it..

Prozac, you'll almost find out immediately if its good for you or not.. bc the people who can't take it.. get an immediate reaction.. not a good one.. just they don't feel right.. or whatever.

So i advocate Proazac, if anything, shrug, but see how much your dr.. and your Rhem dr, shouldn't be prescribing the anti -depressants, but a shrink.... imo.

good luck.. and it might be easier then you think :)

I was dx with depression after my dx of RA and was put on cymbalta. It helps with the pain too. At first I didn't think it was doing anything then dr upped dose to 90mg instead of 60mg and it works good now. The only side effect I get is a little tiredness.

Good luck and take care

I truly didn't think I was depressed, but my primary doc suggested I try it and see how I feel and it has been wonderful. I take Lexapro. It's the only one I have ever tried and no side effects! I got lucky.I am also BiPolar and have been on antidepressants and mood stabilizers for about 35 years.. Back then they had the first line tricylics, which over time I have found are the very best for me.. I can't take the SSRI's at all.. no Prozac, paxil, Zoloft etc. Effexor worked once but not a few years later. Wellbutrin causes a horrible tremor to the point I went off it in 3 days.

you have to work closely withyou dr on this, and trust YOUR reactions. Right now I have been successful on Trazidone and Lamictal,, but I miss taking Lithium, which for me was the best stabilizer.

Please remember, it usually takes about a month or so to really see a change. Some people like my mom, don't wait that long, they just stop using it.There are two really down side effects of anti depressants which can have a major impact on your life. They tend to decrease your sex drive which can ultimately affect your relationship and they dry your mouth out to the point of increasing the chances of tooth decay which leads to increase trips to the dentist which in turn results in less money to go shopping with. So, I can't do the antidepressants. [QUOTE=lorster]There are two really down side effects of anti depressants which can have a major impact on your life. They tend to decrease your sex drive which can ultimately affect your relationship and they dry your mouth out to the point of increasing the chances of tooth decay which leads to increase trips to the dentist which in turn results in less money to go shopping with. So, I can't do the antidepressants. [/QUOTE]

Tricyclics (imipramine, etc) tend to have severe anticholinergic effects like dry mouth; many of the newer ones have little to no anticholinergic side effects. Some can be sedating; some can act a bit like a stimulant. Likewise, some can have an adverse effect on sex drive and/or function and others don't. There are lots of choices today.Thank you all for the input so far. I'll let you know how it works out after wednesday appt.

That is good to remember, that it won't happen overnight..

it will take awhile, a month or more and some playing w/ different meds..

kathy. .. lol, the meds you love, are the ones I loathe the most!! lol

ohh whoever stopped taking antidepressants.. bad reasons, imo.. I do drink tea, pop, something all the time, definately have that dry mouth.. no biggie..

never lost my sex drive.. ever.. LOL

tho i've heard paxil , can definately have that effect.~

Everyones system is different~

let us know how the drs visit went :)

One thing I've learned about the anti-depressants is that they are often poorly prescribed. One needs to be taking a strong enough dose for a long enough period of time and then need to be carefully tapered off to avoid problems. This needs to be carefully monitored.

I had PPD (about 9 years ago) and I took Zoloft, and I had great luck with it. But, it lowered my BP so much, I was passing out. So I switched to Paxil and I had no sex drive at all. So I switched back to Zoloft, with a different dosage and I took them in am and it made me very tired midmorning. Then tried Wellbutrin (to try to wean off antidepressants/quit smoking at the same time). I never quit and eventually weaned off that. Then last year the doc gave me wellbutirin again to try to quit and I turned into a royal b*tch!! I couldn't even stand myself. No anti depressants for me at the moment. I finally go to see my new RD in a week. She may think I need a little something, I think I do and I don't think hubby will disagree!!!
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