Antidepressants (SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOs, TCAs, TeCAs)

Hey doc. Have you ever tried Lexapro? I am on 20 mg/day once a day and I've found it's helped pull me out of a slump along with some. CBT techniques.

 

I did try lexapro, it did the same thing for me, I made it a total of 12 days on lexapro, really flared up T and anxiety.
I am probably going to have to take more time off work, and just power through on one of these until they kick in. Its my best chance at getting my life back, have literally tried everything behavioral, cognitive, my depression is much worse than my T right now. Thanks for the reply.
Did the lexapro initially flare up your T before calming down?

 

So here's what I did. I had been on lexapro for clinical depression for a while (few years) before my T got bad back in last Feb. I weened down off it starting in march and finishing in April and found that being off of it didn't make anything better. I got back on to it(at a lower dosage) shortly after it was out of my system but i started trying other drugs to help t as well (flexeril for 2 mo. And retigabine for 3). I found these new drugs (flexeril/retigabine) didn't give me sustainable relief either but by then I realized the same thing you just said (my depression was the problem more than my T). So after weening off the retigabine I upped my dosage of lexapro to 20 mg(which is still an average to low dose). It honestly may have caused my T to vary in intensity but anxiolitic effects along with a determination to stop caring has made things a lot easier.
I don't know if its possible for you to just try with all your might to accept that T is just a "little sh*t" that we just can't predict. Its so hard but I truly believe the lexapro has helped me learn to care less.
I know of many psychiatrists who truly think it helps on the OCD side of things.
I hope this helps.

 

I am going back on ropinirole. When I first tried it, it worked great for my mood. I stopped due to a spike in both ears but my notes also indicate I was coming off elavil which is known for spikes especially on removal from system.
Hoping for the best.
Anyone try a dopamine agonist?
While on it, I didn't care about my tinnitus being loud.

 

I was adviced about Selegiline (http://selegiline.com/), but i haven't tryed it because i was washing out SSRI and benzos. It was and advice of Prof. Dirk De Ridder and now i'm on Keppra and continue to washing out clonazepam very slowly.
There is a work on pubmed about success with dopamine agonist (selegiline/pramipexole) in patient with tinnitus and hearing loss.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=pramipexole+tinnitus

pramipexole is Mirapexin. There is a tread opened on our website https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...onist-pramipexole-in-presbycusis-patients.84/

Results seems to be important!

best wishes

 

From a quick perusal of this thread, I am getting the impression that opinions are divided as to the usefulness of Fluoxetine but I just wanted to share my own experience to see if anyone else has any views on the drug in relation to habituation. I have been on 20mg Fluoxetine per day continually for about a year. I wanted to see how well I would cope without the drug for a little while so I chose Christmas week for an experimental withdrawal, figuring that I would not have to worry about getting stressed out at work because I do not have to work between Christmas and New Year. I stopped taking Fluoxetine one week ago and as expected, I have noticed a slight increase in generalised anxiety and depression. But more interestingly, I have noticed an improvement in habituation of my T.

For me at least, habituation involves a process whereby the brain develops the ability to filter out the T frequency by focusing instead upon some externally generated source of sound. When this works well, I find that I cease to hear my T unless I actively seek it out. Of course I will still hear it in a quiet environment where there is little or no external sound for the brain to focus upon. In the past few days I have had periods of a few hours when I have found it possible to ignore my T (or not even be conscious of it) and this represents real progress for me. So I am wondering if the Fluoxetine was disrupting or interfering with the ability of my brain to filter out the T frequency. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed similar progress with habituation after withdrawing from Flouxetine. I cannot rule out the possibility that there may be other relevant factors so I am not really sure at this stage whether there is any connection between Fluox withdrawal and better habituation.

 

I've tried Ciprolex and (Lexapro), Pristiq. Both caused T, with Pristiq being particularly severe. I haven't found much re: Trazodone being ototoxic. My doctor says it's not known to be ototoxic. I am also using Remorin and have found that it has had little to no effect on my tinnitus, although my ringing was already quite severe when I started on it, so any change at this point would be hard to notice. I am slowly phasing out Trazodone and sticking with Remorin, which has saved me from a long battle with insomnia.

 

As a side note, Fluoxetine has a huge half life (at least two weeks, even more when used for a long time) so it is unlikely that you would be having any withdrawal symptoms (good or bad) after stopping for a week.
However, its really great that you have been noticing your tinnitus less. Looks like you're on your way.

 

Thanks @undecided. That's useful to know. I am hoping to be able to keep off the Fluoxetine for a while. Part of the reason is because I will not be eligible to take part in the AUT00063 trial if I am using an anti-depressant.

 

I am not on anything at the moment, but for what it's worth: I've been on Celexa, Prozac, and Lexapro, Cymbalta, Neurontin, and amitriptyline. None of these things have increased or decreased my T. Celexa really helped me for anxiety but with the caveat that I felt emotionally numb (couldn't experience joy or sadness) - I probably needed to be on a smaller dose.

 

Hi all,

Went to the doctors today about my T and H, they've put me on anti depressants. They didn't seem very knowledgeable and looked in a book for side effects.

They came to the conclusion to take fluoxetine.

Any experiences of this? I'm so worried about making it worse. Would any effects be temporary?

Any other anti depressants otherwise?

 

I'm also in therapy and they will NOT put me on antidepressants because it can make T worse. They know that out of experience. They said that I have to use St Jans Kruid or 5-HTP

 

Fluoxetine (Prozac) is pretty safe. One of the oldest and most reliable SSRIs.
Easy to stop cold turkey because of its huge half life, no withdrawal or addiction issues whatsoever.
I took it for a while at the smallest dose (10mg per day), made no difference good or bad for my T or my mood, however I wasn't actually depressed or anxious.
I'd give it a shot if I was really, really depressed, otherwise I'd stay clear of any AD, excepts perhaps Remeron.

 

Hey Rico, Is this a tinnitus clinic treating you? I guess they would recommend tapering off slowly if you were currently taking an AD?

I started taking effexor at onset of my T, just entry level dose 37.5 mg. I decided to quit after a few months becasue I was worried about it making my T worse. I think I tapered too quickly, my T went up a lot trying to come off. I only made it half way down my dose and quit trying to taper as I was unsure at that point. Still to this day I'm on half the 37.5 dose as Im not sure about tapering again. I want off but I'm also concerned my T will worsen again. I guess just super slow taper? I asked a doctor and he said that it was such a low dose that I could just stop treatment no big deal. Well if I miss a day I sure can feel it. If I miss a dose, I can move my eyes my T gets louder and things spike up quickly. This is just plain scary. Can't believe we put this poison in our bodies to begin with.

 

Has anyone had their T improve after tapering off these drugs? Or is what's done, done?

 

Hi Telis, No I'm habituated to my T, but I got a major depression and very severe anxiety symptoms due to some other issues. They first want to give me Lexapro but after some research they said they didn't want to give me any AD yet because it could cause my T to spike. If my T spikes now I cannot deal with it.

The issues i have now already ruin my day to day life and I cannot work at the moment because of these stupid anxiety issues. I could care less about my T , but I'm fully aware that my T must not get any worse because T is one thing, but with all the other issues I just cannot deal with it I think.

For me saying that is realy weird because I could take on everything in the past. The thing I hate most is somekind of sensorimonitor - OCD I got together with panicattacks. I need to overcome this.
But using AD is to risky for my T and my therapist also aknowledge that because they also had people in the past where their T became worse after taking AD. It's not that it happens to everybody, but I just cannot take that risk at the moment because I already feel totaly down because of what I have to go through now.

But I do have hope because I feel almost the same as at the onset of my T and I have overcome that too. So I think this will pass also, but I need to habituat to the new situation.

 

Hi All-

I'm really struggling with anxiety and obsessive thoughts, I also have tinnitus, although when the obsessive thoughts are active, I don't really hear my tinnitus.. Probably because all my attention is on the thoughts..

I have been advised to go on an SSRI. It's helped several family members who don't report tinnitus from it. I know there are pages of horror stories about people getting worse tinnitus or even aquiring it from SSRi's, but I feel like some intervention is needed because I'm having trouble functioning based on the anxiety.

Does anyone on here have any positive experience with SSRi's, or has anyone tried a few and found that some have not affected their tinnitus as much as another one?

thanks for you help!

 

I just want to make something clear to you @jeffreyjames ... the whole world has obsessive thoughts! ... but the problem is than when you believe the thought that these thoughts are a problem you are creating a problem ... you follow me? ... you have to take control by disregarding your thoughts as just unimportant head noise ... where does a thought get it`s power anyway? only when you act upon it it becomes a problem. The advice to go on SSRI comes from people who have obsessive thoughts themselves and don`t understand who they are themselves and what the nature of thoughts are ... thoughts in themselves are as empty as nothing ... they come they appear and they go ... I would recommend you start reading some Buddhist literature first and some uplifting spirituality .. go out for walks and smell flowers and eat healthy and spend time with friends in nice environments ... does any of those psychiatrists ask you how you spend your day before advising you to take SSRI? do they check if you have a gutt full of mucus and candida that is creating a clouded mind ... honestly don`t trust their advice so easily ... take your life in control, you are much stronger than you realize!! this all said I would stay away from SSRI and find a healthy other option that is not notorious for giving you tinnitus ... I prefer feeling a bit down and waiting for a cure over playing russian roulette with this stuff.

 

Nills, does that mean if the cure for T comes in a form of medicine you will not take it?
Jeffrey James, there are 2 sides to every coin- millions of people have been helped by SSRIs, myself included. Yes, they are probably over-prescribed by certain doctors who just shell the pills out to people that don't really need them. I am happliy married, been succesful in my career, have good health, ect-BUT chemically i am prone to depression and hence take them, just like a diabetic needs insulin. You will hear cons like Nills and pros from people like me. Honestly you need to find out thru yourself if this medicine can help you. You can not get a legit answer from anyone A- if it will help you and B-if it will increase your T, you will need to try if yourself. I am by no means saying that you should take them, you might not really need them and yes they have sideffects and do not work for everyone, just like aspirin. My advice to you if you do take them is fin a good pschy doctor who will work with you, taper you up to the theraputic dose so your body can adjust to the medicine and most importantly BE PATIENT, they take time to work properly and might not help you with all of your issues but give you firmer emotional ground to stand on while you work your recovery. I understand you can read horror stories on the internet, what you will not usually read is all the people that have been helped and gotten their life back- like i said, 2 sides to the coin. Good luck and God Bless
Kevin

 

"Nortriptyline


Nortriptyline (Aventyl®) is tricyclic antidepressant that is also used to treat chronic fatigue, migraine and chronic pain (193–196). Its primary mode of action is to inhibit the reuptake of norepinephrine and, to a lesser extent, 5-HT. Nortriptyline also blocks muscarinic and 5-HT receptors. In a small, single-blind, placebo-washout study involving patients with severe tinnitus and major depression, nortriptyline significantly reduced depression and tinnitus loudness (10-dB reduction) (197). In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, follow-up study involving subjects with severe tinnitus and severe depression or depressive symptoms, nortriptyline significantly reduced depression scores, tinnitus disability scores and tinnitus loudness (6.4-dB reduction) relative to placebo (198). There was a significant correlation between the reduction in tinnitus disability scores and depression scores (199). These results suggest that nortriptyline is effective in reducing tinnitus loudness and severity in severely depressed tinnitus patients, but has less benefit in nondepressed individuals."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136369/

 

Have you tried Nortriptyline or are you going to?

 

Sadly, I've not tried it...I've tried amitriptyline, but this sounds far better with less side-effects. Still, if anyone else has tried it, do let me know.

 

I have tried both and Amitriptyline is what worked for me. When sleep was issue at first(Huge problem as we all know)it corrected it in a very short time. Always just needed a low dose with no side effects.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11771024

This study conducted with Amitriptyline was short but seemed to be effective. It suggests to use it as follows:

- First week 50mg/ a day
- Five more weeks 100mg / a day

Interesting..

 

I took a recipy of 20 mg/day isn't 100mg a lot? I hesitate to start though, I dont beleive it will do anything to my T, I dont need antidepresant and am afraid of sideffects.

 

I take it amitriptyline was better for sleep? I never took amitriptyline for 5 weeks on 100mg, so maybe I should've? Oh, well.

 

The study has I presume been supervised by health professionals. I have no clue how much of that substance is a normal dose, you might find info somewhere else about normal dosages

 

100mg is a normal dose. I think it can go up to 150mg if needed.

 

I was on Nortriptyline but stop it seemed to make my T louder....I then read side effects of Nortriptyline and Tinnitus was listed as one of them. I also tried Gabapentin and had same effect I'm now tappering down from GABA and going back on Remeron

 

I thought it might. Benzo's are not good for tinnitus, that's why potassium channel modulators are perfect for us. Although, not many people not what one is lol, not even my doctors.