Just thought I'd add my ten cents worth : I've been taking Nortriptylene for over 25 years in varying doses depending on need and from my discussions with other sufferers of anxiety/depression it is often more effective than SSRIs (although you have to take a lot more tablets), nor does it send you to sleep once you're used to it. It is also a potent help for anyone who's suffering from Irritibable Bowel Syndrome (I found this out by accident about 20 years ago) - sufferers of IBS often have depression, etc. It will be a great relief when the 25mg Allegron tablets, previously manufactured by Pan Pharmaceuticals, are back on the market again.

For those who find the side effect of dry mouth irritating, that the dryer your mouth is the better the coverage from Allegron and, usually, the fewer symptoms of depression/anxiety you will experience.

Also a 15 km walk each day will go a long way to alleviating depression (although most of us don't have the time and you probably all know this anyway).

(LouiseS)
(09/12/2003)

hello, my name is Lori I am 39, I own my own business and am a graduate of Rutgers University in Newark, NJ, maried and have four children, my oldest is 21 years old, she is going to college a very good kid. My second daughter is 17 years old and she will be graduating high school this year, my oldest son who is 8 years old and my baby who is now 2 years old.

I have suffered from depression since childhood only I was never aware that that is what I had. I also have anxiety/panic disorder.

My problem became extreme after I had my son and the baby blues progressively became worse. I did not want to eat, sleep, leave my room and all I wanted was to die and relieve my pain.

Then I began to hear voices in my head and I cried all day. I could do nothing not take care of my children including the baby. My regular M.D. sent me for hundreds of tests and still no one knew what was wrong with me I was in and out of hospitals with dehydration and accelerated heart rate and sent home only to return.

Finally one day my husband called the doctor and told him that we had to look somewhere else for help since everything that he was doing did not help me. He reluctantly sent me to a psychiatrist that his own wife was seeing.

This psychiatrist was a maniac it seemed that he should be on medication. He gave me three types of medication, prozac included and nothing worked.

Then he wanted my husband to commit me to the psychiatry ward and I begged my husband to not do this and my husband who I love very much stood by me and told him that he would never do such a thing. He took me home and problems continued.

I saw everyting in black/gray and dark. I could not stand the light or the day. I began to vomit and had stomach problems and my husband took me to a doctor who specialized in this area and he performed an endoscopy.

When he medicated me before the test I began to feel peace my body relaxed I began to see some color. He then performed the test and told me that my stomach lining was irritated but this was because I was not eating. He asked me what was happening and I told him about having the baby and everything going down hill from there. He said that he was not an expert in the field but it sounds as if I was suffering from a severe case of post partum depression. He asked if I wanted to go see a friend of his who was a psychiatrist and I reluctantly said yes.

The first time I was scared and nervous thinking that he was going to recommend commitment. But I was pleasantly suprised to see that he was so different from the other doctor. He spoke to me as a friend and then explained to me that I would have to take medication because I had serotonin defeciency. He is the one who introduced me to nortryptoline. 50mg at first and he increased it to 300mg. He warned me of the side effects and that I had to be patient since it could be four weeks before I felt any better and he also gave me xanax 5mg.

Well this medication worked I was gradually able to come down on the dosage to 50mg. I was also able to stop using xanax every eight hours and now I only use it when I feel really anxious but most of the time the pills turn to powder from not being used.

I have had another baby and stayed on the medication and my baby was born perfectly normal. And believe me betwen being pregnant and then my father passing away when I was five months pregnant I do not know how I would have managed without nortryptoline.

I guess that this medication works differently on different people. For me it was a god send. I was able to be off of nortryptoline for over a year and suffered no withdrawal.

If I have to take nortryptoline for the rest of my life I am o.k. with that. This is preferable than to living in the darkness as I was before this medication. The voices in my head have never returned even during the time I was off the medication.

(Lori)
(07/01/2003)

top