IrishAugust Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 Greetings all.... DH is now taking Parnate, 20mg twice a day. It has taken three years to get his DH pdoc to finally agree that his problem wasn't plain vanilla depression. That, and he's tried nearly every medication known to man for depression and then one more (riluzole, very interesting, actually). He d/c-ed all other meds a few weeks ago, tapered off, all the right things. Started the parnate slowly. Watches his diet. Blahblahblah. Anyways, anyone got a time frame for onset of action, like, ballpark? He gets the afternoon fatigue kick in the guts, but no "hey, I feel a little better", yet. We are actaully waiting for the EMSAM patch, but of course, the pdoc wouldn't prescribe the oral selegiline. WTF. DHs dx is atypical depression, but I see some BPII (mostly anger issues) in there too. We are waiting for a second opinion appointment. Considering we live in close proximity to a ginormous teaching hospital witha great reputation, it's amazing how freakin' long these appointment take to get. So, and Parnaters here? How're you doing. Give me some hope, please...... Regards, Irish Panic/anxiety/depression<------stupidly well-controlled by Vitamin P and a little Ativan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirMarshall Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 Fiona is the expert on Parnate. I think we now have one or two others as well. A.M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosty Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 The best drug I ever had! I started it when my mother died. No other drug ever worked for me I am bp2 and i really felt good. Doc should give you a list of tyramine foods to avoid.. List is not very long anymore. Can really affect blood pressure, You have to follow doctors instructions to the letter...no cough syrup, any otc meds except reg tylenol or ibuprofen .. stuff like that. wear a medic alert bracelet ,carry a warning card in your wallet, He needs to tell or ask him everything. Makes you dizzy, headacky is usually used for lethargic depression because the drug is very activating when it kicks in fully in about 4 weeks. Effects are usually felt after 1 week but not until one month will you know it works well with you. I had, afterabout 4 years, Parnate syndrome, I stopped sleeping completely, and twitched so I needed to stop. I am on a different drug now but it does not work as well. Frosty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiona Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Parnate is a miracle! I took it for about a year in the past, and I've been on it almost a year now. I should never have gone off it the first time, talk about regrets. Parnate, and Nardil, are among the most effective ADs available. They have a very high rate of actually working for people and work relatively quickly. Their effectiveness and speed of action is very close to that of ECT, without the electricity part. Parnate is the most effective medication I've ever taken, and I've taken most of the ones on the market in various combinations. I've been fighting this depression for over six years now, and Parnate is the most effective med I've taken and also the only one that hasn't pooped out of whatever effect it had. It has literally given me back my life. You do have to watch the diet carefully, but it is not as restrictive as believed in the past. I can provide by email the results of my literature review on the topic. And I've found that watching my diet for "bad things" is automatic, the same way I watch for animal products since I'm vegetarian. And you do have to be careful about other meds, especially the over-the-counter ones. As for how quickly it works, I found an effect in about a week to ten days. It pulled me from an immobile 'must kill myself right now' phase immediately. And over a month or so it brought me up close to normal. This last year is the best I've had in many years, I've been working thought not at 'full quality.' Of course, because of how far down I was, we knew what had been the effective dose in the past, and I was in very close contact with my pdoc, I increased the dose very quickly. I've found the side effects very tolerable. I've probably gained some weight on it, but having my life is far more important to me and I know I can lose the weight by exercising and eating more healthfully. I don't feel either overly activated or fatigued by it, and it has certainly affected my blood pressure but not enough to be a danger. I do suggest that you keep a blood pressure cuff around, and that you take a set of baseline readings so you'll be able to say what "normal" is for you. You should also be sure to wear a MedicAlert bracelet and carry a wallet card. There's a pinned thread at the top of this group about MAOIs in general. If you want to know anything else, don't hesitate to ask on the board or by pm. I hope it's as effective for your husband. My partner says anyone who wants to take those pills from me is going to have to fight her first. Fiona (who has never said anything short) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishAugust Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 The best drug I ever had! I started it when my mother died. No other drug ever worked for me I am bp2 and i really felt good. Doc should give you a list of tyramine foods to avoid.. List is not very long anymore. Can really affect blood pressure, You have to follow doctors instructions to the letter...no cough syrup, any otc meds except reg tylenol or ibuprofen .. stuff like that. wear a medic alert bracelet ,carry a warning card in your wallet, He needs to tell or ask him everything. Makes you dizzy, headacky is usually used for lethargic depression because the drug is very activating when it kicks in fully in about 4 weeks. Effects are usually felt after 1 week but not until one month will you know it works well with you. I had, afterabout 4 years, Parnate syndrome, I stopped sleeping completely, and twitched so I needed to stop. I am on a different drug now but it does not work as well. Frosty <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Fiona.... Thanks a million for the info... While I know YMMV, can you give me an idea about what dose you were taking when you felt the med kick in? DH has some weird-ass metabolism. He can take 40mg of diazepam and still be conversational, swear to god. But the least little bit of stimulant and he bounces off the walls. The reasons I'm asking is that it took too freaking long to convince his pdoc to try an MAOI, and I'm wondering if the pdoc is being too conservative in the dose. Because his dx is atypical depression and he had the mood reactivity component, he could always get in a good enough mood to go to the pdoc, ergo, the pdoc thought the AD was working. NONONONONO! Pdoc kept saying it was regular depression. Took a major consult at Yale to get the correct dx, and they think there may be a BPII sprectrum thing going on. Sp he's seeing another pdoc for a 2nd opinion next week. Maybe add Lamictal, but we'll see. Anyway, I appreciate so much any info you can through this way! BTW, are you interested int he EMSAM when it's available? I've been watching the progress and research and it's pretty interesting. There's a certain contingent of doc in the UK who have been prescribing selegiline at low dose to their patients simply for the neuroprotective qualities it may have. One of my eFriends in London got her doc to get her the powder form of selegiline and have it compounded until the patch is on the street. It's stupidly easy. The recipe is essentially 20mg/20cm2. You take the powder, mix it with p.l.o. gel slap it on a hairless section of your torso somewhere and cover it with a Tegaderm patch. Okay, Prozac and Provigil babbling here.... Regards, Alli Regards, Alli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishAugust Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 Note to self: Do not post before third cuppa tea. My bad. Stuck the post where it don't belong. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Alli Recovering Catholic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiona Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 While I know YMMV, can you give me an idea about what dose you were taking when you felt the med kick in? I don't really recall. Because we had an idea of what dose had worked before, we just went directly up to that dose as rapidly as possible. I take 120mg/day (and hate that it only comes in 10mg tablets!), but that's a lot. My pdoc, who is very experienced with these, says it's the highest dose he's ever prescribed and he doesn't think he'd go any higher. Maybe add Lamictal, but we'll see.I take Lamictal and Seroquel as well as Parnate. I find them both very helpful meds, and the three together seem to be exactly what I need. So if Lamictal is prescribed, he may find it very helpful. BTW, are you interested int he EMSAM when it's available? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't know. I guess it depends on how things look at the time. I'm reluctant to mess with a system that works and has brought me back to functional and reasonable. Fiona Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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