Posted by King Vultan on August 16, 2004, at 12:21:41
In reply to Questions about long term TCA (esp desipramine), posted by Racer on August 15, 2004, at 15:22:37
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> Specific to desimpramine, let's here those stories about its effect on your weight: did anyone gain weight? If so, how much? And, if so, have other A/Ds also caused you to gain weight, and was it more or less than on the desimpramine? Did desipramine cause you to feel sedated, apathetic, or emotionally numb? And did the effects on your mood change over time? What side effects did you experience on it?
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Desipramine acted as a relatively strong appetite suppressant for me, and I lost more weight than I have on any other med, even though I am not overweight to begin with. The only two ADs I've experienced weight gain on (which was fairly minor in my case) were Zoloft, due to an increase in appetite, and Nardil, due to some kind of metabolic thing. Desipramine was one of the more positive meds I've taken, being very good in the areas of emotionality and spirituality. After being atheistic or agnostic my entire life, I had a rather profound experience about ten days after starting desipramine that actually caused me to start believing in God. I've been off it for over six months now but still choose to maintain that belief. If MAOIs wind up not working out for me, this is probably the drug I would choose to go back on for the long term.As for side effects, I suffered dry mouth, constipation, moderate but not severe insomnia, urinary hesitation, hypotension, tachycardia, and probably some others I've forgotten. That all sounds bad, but this was actually the first AD I had tried that had few enough side effects for me to tolerate a full therapeutic dose of it (200 mg/day). The hypotension, especially of the orthostatic variety, was probably the most annoying side effect, and I have borderline hypertension to begin with. Well, at least I was able to drop my BP med while on the stuff.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:377967
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040811/msgs/378274.html