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

I tried a few antidepressants in the past and the only one which didn't immediately spike my tinnitus or make me feel weird like all the rest did was Paxil (Paroxetine) but then it was banned due to reports of really bad withdrawals for people. I still have some.

 

Interesting article:
Effectiveness of antidepressants: an evidence myth constructed from a thousand randomized trials?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2412901/

 

What antidepressant has most chance of removing head tinnitus?

Even a 50% reduction will be godsend.

 

Some people have had luck with nortriptyline or amitriptyline. For me personally, ami added a new tone so be careful with what you put in your body.

 

I was on nortriptyline for pain when I got the tinnitus. Tinnitus got a bit quieter when I came off it. Supposedly it helps others' tinnitus though. I'm cautious around antidepressants.

 

No AD is indicated for tinnitus. It's pot luck based upon anecdotal reports.

 

What's the best antidepressant to increase neuroplasticity?

It seems that increasing neuroplasticity might help to get rid of tinnitus sooner than later and it seems that greater neuroplasticity is going to be very beneficial when using MuteButton.

I'm thinking of taking antidepressants to improve brain function and prepare for MuteButton.

 

I believe there are studies out there that suggest antidepressants may inhibit neuroplasticity. I’ve asked several doctors about this. Nobody gives me a straight answer. I don’t think anybody really knows. I’ve avoided them for just this reason.

 

Please be careful while starting AD's . Mine tinnitus started after second dose ( 75 mg) of Venlafaxine. I stopped the drug, but the tinnitus persisted.

 

@glynis used nortriptyline with success.

 

Are you sure it was the Venlafaxine?
I've been asking about Venlafaxine recently and supposedly there's only two recorded cases of Venlafaxine causing it. I've been on it since 2015 and am now trying to switch to Fluxetine. But I'm not seeing any difference and Venlafaxine us out your system inside 2 days.

 

@Allan1967 I was taking Mirtazapine for sleep issues, but the doc wanted to boost my energy during the day so he put me on Venlafaxine.

I'm curious if it wasn't the combo of them. Both are metabolised by CYP3A4 in liver so maybe it made Venlafaxine concentration in blood bigger?

But the time connection was pretty obvious, it started ringing about 2 hours after the pill... I even wrote to Pfizer (the drug producer) and they gave me a document which claimed that there are cases of this drug induced tinnitus.

What is more I didn't have any acoustic trauma - was resting in my home, didn't listen to loud music, nothing. All audiology test came back normal... What a shame.

What is more there are many cases of SSRI induced tinnitus, in my dose Venlafaxine (SNRI) works like SSRI mostly.

 

After scrolling through 21 pages of this thread it seems that what helps some can highly exacerbate someone else's tinnitus. It's hard to justify the risk when the reasoning behind most of the people posting here's depression is in fact their tinnitus.

I feel like I need help for my depression, I'm starting to notice memory issues and lack of pleasure in my favorite things but I can't bring myself to take the risk. This leads me to alternative or I should say emerging treatments...

Anyone tried ketamine infusions? Seems like a safer (although more expensive as it's not covered) treatment considering the closest any drug was to getting approved for tinnitus was esketamine (am-101). While it failed it seems that ketamine would be the lowest risk. Thoughts?

Also, psilocybin. Yes..magic mushrooms. They apparently work through a different serotonin receptor then ssri's/snri's. Best attribute is that one medium dose can have long lasting positive effects. Seems much less toxic than traditional pharmaceutical options.

Lastly, a company called Sage Therapeutics is developing some pretty next level treatments. There's already a forum on here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/sage-therapeutics-—-cns-disorders.30078/

Anyone experimented with any of these? Sage is doing a bunch of clinical trials at the moment and it's tempting to join considering if/when these drugs get approved they will probably be outrageously expensive given how promising both science and wall street seem to think their MOA is. This would be high risk with the potential of high reward. Didn't mean to hijack this thread it just seems that in summary traditional ssri's are too risky for most of us and not even very effective to begin with.

 

Have you considered CBT? It does not involve drugs.

 

Yes, I should have mentioned that all these medications should be adjunctive to CBT with a reliable and caring professional. I think pretty much everyone, tinnitus or no tinnitus, would benefit from getting professional insight at some point in their lives. Just wanted to see if anyone tried these newer drugs, it seems after hours and hours of research these 3 (ketamine, psilocybin, and Sage) keep coming back as the ones with the highest potential to help while having a lower risk than traditional pills.

 

Hi @Kev -- It looks like you're focused exclusively on drug therapies. Any reason(s) why you aren't considering non-drug therapies, such as HBOT, dietary/supplement possibilities, etc.? It would seem to take the risk of exacerbating the tinnitus almost completely off the table.

The interest and amount of discussion I've seen on this forum on drug therapies--including antidepressants--mystifies me. There seems to be so much long-term potential downside. Why take these kinds risks before exhausting all other non-drug possibilities. Some of my favorites are: mHBOT, Inositol, St. John's Wort, Intermittent Fasting (very moderate), Acupuncture, Cranial Sacral, Meditation, etc.

 

Hi Lane, HBOT is not a good option for me considering my ETD and that of most my tinnitus is from a severe barotrauma. As far as the others go (not to sound close-minded here) there just isn't really much evidence to support the efficacy of any of them, with the exception of meditation which is something I do practice.

I have tried some dietary supplements but they really don't work for me or possibly anyone. I am trying to get by on meditation and CBT but it's just not enough at the moment which is why I feel I need pharmaceutical help. The three drugs I have narrowed it down to seem the lesser of several evils. Thank you for your suggestions though

 

As someone who has been on antidepressants for three years now for schizotypal personality disorder, which is the mental disorder that I got, because I messed up my hearing using headphones on max volume and got hidden hearing loss which makes me disabled and doesn't let me function properly. I highly recommend not using antidepressants. It didn't cure my disease. It just made me numb and emotionless enough not to kill myself at best. I still have mood changes and sadness all the time. I still experience insane anxiety every day that eats me up inside. I still don't want to live. I live only for my mother and family. So antidepressants changed nothing, but emptied my wallet, made me gain a lot of weight and got me dependent on them like some psychotropic drugs.

Honestly after losing my father, losing my dog, losing my sister's husband to suicide who I loved like a brother and knew since childhood, losing my perfect hearing, losing the house in the capital of my country, the city that I loved and having to relocate into an older house in a small city where I can't even find a job, getting tinnitus, developing schizotypal personality disorder, insomnia, depending on disability payments to survive. What do antidepressants change honestly? Nothing. They can't fix any of my problems. I just drug myself and make these poison manufacturers richer. Also now that I visited multiple doctors I also learned another important truth in life. Nobody really cares about you. Doctors don't even bother to listen to my complaints and change the dosages of my medication.

If someone is interested in what antidepressants I take, I used to take Risperidone one tablet once a day and Mirtazapine once in the evening in the first year, but then the doctor changed my antidepressants to Risperidone one tablet twice a day, Paroxetine once in the morning and Somnol once in the evening for sleep. And Cyclodol for muscle twitches that I experience.

 

I want to add that I recently tested for catecholamine levels (Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, Dopamine, Serotonin).

Dopamine and Norepinephrine came back high. My neurologist said that AT HIGH LEVELS THEY CAUSE TOXICITY AND DIRECT DAMAGE TO CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.

This is likely the cause of most of my problems and nonexistent "mental health issues" that doctors try to make up when I tell them about my symptoms.

Heart palpitations immediately wake up even before I have a single conscious thought? Anxiety.
Intense tremors and muscle spasms? Anxiety.
Brain fog? Depression.
Unexplained insomnia? Anxiety.
Constant headaches? Everyone gets them.
Cold hands and pale skin? You just don't eat too much.

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. PRESCRIBED ME ANTIDEPRESSANTS RIGHT AWAY.

And do you know what antidepressants do? They increase concentrations of these neurotransmitters in your brain.
Here, take a pill that will cause your CNS to go haywire and cause brain damage and we'll see how it goes in a month.


First link when you Google catecholamines toxicity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2900882
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f65/8d7b54fc76ee42b897dc4adc189100566b28.pdf
"All catecholamines tested, including norepinephrine (NE), dopamine, and epinephrine, were toxic to neurons as well as glia at a concentration of 25 microM when added to cultures 24 hr after plating. Toxicity was evident after 48 hr exposure to NE, as monitored by loss of cells from the cultures."

Cardiotoxicity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3894676 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/321255
"Catecholamines can lead to irreversible myocardial necrosis but the underlying mechanisms appear to be complex."


Remember that most doctors don't care about you. Do your own research and don't think that some magic pill will make your problems go away.

 

Is that a blood test? Do the say tell anything about concentrations in the brain?

I can relate. I've been on Venlafaxine for 20 years and Mirtazapine for 8 years aka "California rocketfuel".

This has really fucked up my CNS and I have struggled with severe tremors, anxiety and nausea these last 4 years. Ironically it started right after the onset of tinnitus and noxacusis, like that wasn't enough.

I have now just got down to 150 mg Venlafaxine from 225 and I'm so depressed, agitated and anxiety ridden, I contemplate suicide all day long. I'm going to be committed from Monday on and it's highly likely I'm going to go through ECT. At this time I won't allow any more psych meds to enter my body.

Just scared what it can/will do with my tinnitus though. Any experiences with ECT?

I'm at the end of my rope!

 

I've been on Lexapro for nearly 15 years. It hasn't been a cure-all, but it's the best antidepressant I've taken. In the past, I tried Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor XR, and Gabapentin (an anti-seizure med). The Effexor worked for about a year, but then it stopped. And the withdrawal was horrible. Lexapro had no side effects, but lately I've been feeling shitty, especially since one of my tinnitus sounds returned after a two and a half year absence. I may ask my doctor about trying something new.

 

Just an update... start of the week I switched back to Venlafaxine after being on Fluoxetine for 8 weeks. At week 4 of being on Fluoxetine my hearing started to get sensitive.

I'm 3 days in and my tinnitus is a 10. I think my next plan is to stay on Venlafaxine for a couple of months, see how it goes then taper off altogether.

Anyone tapered off before and what did you experience?

 

https://www.audiology.org/news/ssri-and-tinnitus

 

The best medicine for my tinnitus is an anti-psychotic called olanzapine, BTW I am not psychotic . I've had some success with the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline. BTW I have subjective noise induced tinnitus.

Don't get an olanzapine unless you are low weight or at least average weight BMI wise. It will cause weight gain and eventually diabetes if you are not careful enough. I've personally found that if I cycle it's use that it's negative side effects are greatly minimized. Meaning I only take it every third day or so. You will need a psychiatrist to prescribe it but it's the best medication I've used for my T so far.

 

I'm dropping down to 35mg of Venlafaxine for two weeks, then quitting antidepressants.

Not looking forward to it as I'm expecting a bumpy ride.

 

Here’s a poll on antidepressant use and tinnitus:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-antidepressants-tinnitus-connection.35733/

 

Haven't read the thread, but all I can say is that i'm pretty sure that an SSRI caused my tinnitus (maybe in conjunction with another medication). I would stay 100% away from them. People say that there is only a 1-2% chance of tinnitus so there isn't much risk. I say that 1-2% is massive. Who would go on a aeroplane if there was a 1-2% chance of crashing/dying? I wouldn't.

 

What I will say more is that never trust that your GP or any other doctor knows the side effects of SSRIs or any other drugs. Even if you ask them to their face and they say, "No, there are no side effects" do not take it as gospel. Do your own research and at the very least read the instructions inside the packet of medication.

 

I have been taking low dosage of Venlafaxin (37.5) daily for two weeks now. I think it changed the tone of my tinnitus but it hard to say. Overall, the effects have been positive. It stops me for going to the deepest valleys of depression. I am also very sensitive to the drug. Immediately from the first pill I could notice that the certainly was not placebo. Hence I have not increased the dosage as the current one seems to do the trick.

 

What are your thoughts on Lexapro??