Need a New Anti Depressant....

Hello,

I am pre op and presently taking 300mg of Wellbutrin (generic equivalent per day.) I began taking it in 2008 due to severe depression. I got the script from my PCP, not a Psychologist. It was his opinion that due to my obesity, Wellbutrin would serve me the best as it was an anti depressent and also offered some beneficial component of weight loss (I don't recall what.) Initially I felt more energized and only moderately better...in terms of mood. I got pregnant with my second child and quit cold turkey throughout my pregnancy and breastfeeding (bout 2 years.) I am now back on Wellbutrin and have been on long enough for there to be a theraputic does in my system yet I have no relief. The depression is not even marginally better and that teeny tiny bit of energy I got frm it the last go round is nowhere to be found. I have a certain degree of anxiety coupled with very serious depression. I am not sucidal but I do have an eternal feeling of hopelessness. I have read on these boards about a person or possibly more than one person who did fine on wellbutrin...then didn't. I know I need a doctor and etc etc. But can anyone point me in the right direction as to what meds to ask my doc for?? I did a basic search online and I kept ended up on site for people with other more serious disorders. For instance one board was for bi polar people. So the well butrin topic was heavily laced with suggestions for a ton of other meds that I don't ned.

I learned from reading on the board that the Wellbutrin will likely not suffice after surgery due to the way it which it is released/absorbed. I have also learned that I will likely lose a lot of hormones when losing the weight after surgery, which could make depression worse. So I would like to get a better handle on the depression prior to surgery....

This is really a conversation to have with your doctor, preferably a psych. There's a lot of anti-depressants to choose from, and if your depression is severe and coupled with anxiety a psychologist would be the best to advise you on this. A PCP just won't have the knowledge about how to treat depression and anxiety disorders, even though they are more than willing to help you out with a perscription. Also, your reaction to meds will be unique- you won't actually know if it works or not unless you try them and see how it goes. Everyone has different experiences on the meds.

I did well on a low-dose of zoloft for depression and anxiety, but I have no idea if it would be the right med for you.

I take a rather impressive-to-docs ****tail of antidepressants: Wellbutrin and Effexor (both time released btw) in the morning, trazodone (and Klonopin, which is not an antidepressant) at night. It took some fiddling with the plan to find this combination and dosage schedule, and you'd better believe I do NOT mess with success.

Because of my own experience, I do not buy the idea that we can't utilize time release meds. I might not utilize them as efficiently as I did preop, but I clearly absorb them.

I have to agree with EN about the time released meds.  I'm on Wellbutrin, Abilify, Pristiq, Lamotrigine, and Trazodone.  Not messing with success either.

 I take Lexapro and Wellbutrin.  Before my surgery, the doctor changed the prescription to SR instead of XL.  I ran this by my surgeon pre op and he said that should work.  

Sandy

Me too. Lexapro and I'm re-adding Wellbutrin this week. The Lexapro by itself isn't enough right now. Last time I added Wellbutrin to the mix: I found that the Klonopin (clonazepam) helped me sleep at night while my body was figuring out the combination.

I take 150 mg of Zoloft once a day, and for me, it works wonders for my anxiety and depression. I have been thinking that I need to up my dose because since surgery I've been getting a few more symptoms, but have left that convo with my PCP until I'm out of the first 2 months post-op. Gotta give those hormones some time to normalize!

I agree, please seek the advice of a psychiatrist, not just your PCP.  

I'm another one who takes Lexapro and Wellbutrin.  Before my surgery, my psychiatrist changed the Wellbutrin prescription to SR instead of XL.  So far, I'm doing very well. Everyone is different, especially with antidepressents. It can take a lot of fiddling around to find the right drug and dose or combinations.

I also agree that you should get the depression under control before you start the roller coaster of surgery and weight loss. Keep in mind that the combination of medication and talk therapy is statistically more successful than either treatment alone. A psychiatrist (they are MDs) can manage the medication while the talk therapy is provided by some sort of counselor.  They are generally used to working as a team. 

Take care, you deserve to feel normal again.

Thank you all so so so much!!


That is exactly what I was looking for. A few mentioned one drug, a few mentioned another. SO I can now start to sort of bring these up to my PCP. I know I need to talk to a psych, but I can never get a straight answer from my insurance as to what exactly my coverege is and under what cir****tances. I have been told that my plan only covered therapists or in other words people that AREN'T psychiatrists. Then I was told the polar opposite, that only psychatrists were covered, not therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists etc. . Then I was told that I had to be diagnosed with a mental thing... which is easy enough. I have depression. I was getting therapy from a local university. BUT of course that was by students and the sessions were taped and used in the degree program. I wasn't really comfortable with that and I decided to stop because I wasn't being open and honest during the sessions because of this fact.

You all have given me the desire to call my insurance and DEMAND a straight answer for my coverage. Usually I just sorta get frustrated at the conflicting information I get and sort of decide to deal with it at another date.

I know this is entirely off topic, But my issues lie with my mother. I don't mean that in that humerous sit com kind of way. My mother is a narcissist with a set of food issues all her own. Throughout my childhood my mother was simply awful. Overly critical and would always situate herself in the postition to be superior and therefore able to be overly critical, and essentially verbally abusive. She would often lie to do so. She has always trried to outdo me in everyway. Of course I never realized this until I got older and wiser. I spend a great deal of time desperately trying to gain her approval, to no avail. Every ******g thing is about her. She takes information I share with her, things I have learned, even gossip and takes claim for it as if it were her own. I have even heard her take claim for THINGS I HAVE DONE. Its one thing to say that you "learned something" that someone else told you. I think its a lil less than honest, but technically, I guess you did learn something...that someone else told you. The more honest way would be to say that someone told you. But its something else all together to pretend as if you actually did an action yourself. Which is what she does. If I discover a new store, or a new route somewhere and tell her that, she will just tell the same story I told her, only acting like the act was her, instead  of me.  She uses these lil gems of conversation to engage anyone who will talk to her. She DESPERATELY needs attention and does some of the most pathetic things on earth to get it. When I was younger and lived with her she would behave inapprorpiately with the few friends I managed to have, I don't mean sexually, or like boozing it up. I mean like...in their faces and in the conversation like they were there to visit her. This was especially true for the boyfriends I managed to have.  This caused a level of built in anxiety you wouldn't believe. Now that I am an adult and married, she tries to outdo me even more. My husband enjoys going to lunch with his colleagues. I know this. I used to prepare him a lunch daily, and he would always "forget it." My mother was here one day during our morning goings on and declared, VERBALLY,  that I wasnt a good wife and that my husband needed a lunch to take to work everyday. So everyday for the next couple weeks she made a BIG point of calling my house every night to make arrangements to make my husband lunch. Then of course she had to bring it to my house everymorning and essentially try and out wife me to my husband. I am used to her ******y. Didn't phase me, but it's an example of how she is. She really is a sick woman, sad and pathetic really. Excuse my french during that rant.

I have always known I needed psycho therapy to sorts of deal with this issue. BUt I always hoped that meds would have to suffice until I was able to afford therapy. I came across the program at the university and throught I was really on to something, but...that proved not to be the case. In any event, thank you all so much. I am gonna get a straight answer from my insurance one way or another...

Sorry for the unrelated rant

You need that straight answer from your insurance and you need both medication monitoring and therapy. Go beat down their doors until you have real information, in writing, to clarify your coverage.