Posted by gregm2 on April 14, 2002, at 9:07:40
My father is 75 years old and had a depression crisis 3 years ago. He was hospitalized and his condition was diagnosed (?) as organic psycho- syndrome. He has tried several medications (anti-depressants, neuroleptics) and suffered with a lot of side effects (e.g. anorexia, parkinsonism due to the neuroleptics, etc).
For the past year or so, he is taking the following medication:
Remeron (mirtazapine): 45 mg daily (15mg morning, 30 mg evening
Stedon (diazepam): 7.5 mg daily (2.5 mg morning, 5mg evening)
Memodrin (aniracetam): 1500mg daily (750mg morning, 750mg afternoon)
Atarax(hydroxyzine): 150 mg daily (50mg, 3 times daily)He has followed the above scheme for more than a year now, and has been relatively OK moodwise. During this time, he almost never went out of home (one reason is that his legs are not very strong).
For the past 2 weeks he is feeling anxiety and the doctor has increased the diazepam dose by 5mg (up to 12.5). The result is that the anxiety has only decreased a little, but he seems like he is "lost" and confused (he does not talk a lot, he "stares" on the wall, he does not answer if we ask him a question).
I am worrying that taking benzodiazepines (diazepam) for such a long time may be harmful, and also in combination with all these drugs. We have been to a lot of psychiatrists and the current doctor who follows his case is a neurologist. Please help with any suggestions!
poster:gregm2
thread:103032
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/103032.html