Has anyone had sucess on this combo after other ad's have failed. I started using Zoloft 25mg years ago for sad and depression. It made me feel wonderful life was enjoyable, not mania but my life is good so I could just enjoy it and the people around me. I took it for many years but started to abuse it meaning I would only take it once every 3 days or so. Then when I started using it religiously at 100mg and it wasnt working anymore. Dr. put me on 200mg a day for 2 more weeks and that didnt work. I switched to paxil immediately went to 40mg a day no side effects except the obvious sexual and insomnia for about 1 week. I took that med for 6 weeks with no results whatsoever. So I sugessted to my dr to augment the paxil with wellbutrin I was on the paxil with wellbutrin for 2 weeks and felt nothing still. So I recommened to my dr. to put me on effexor and wellbutrin even though after 5 weeks on wellbutrin I have felt nothing whatsoever. Supposedly its is only a minor inhibitor of dopamine and norepineperine so I concluded that effexor would boost the serotonin if I have any left as well as the nor and the wellbutrin would add benefits of the dopamine. Im on 300mg a day of well Sr and 150mg a day of effexor xr. Its been 8 days and I dont feel jack, im loosing hope that anymed will ever help me again and then my only hope is ECT or then just call it quits. Has anyone had luck with medication resistant depression and using wellbutrin and effexor or any other combos after failed trials with other drugs. Thanks in advance.

Johnny,

My husband, too, was diagnosed with "drug resistant depression". Scary dx, to say the least. He has tried various "therapies" as well, to no avail. ECT was also discussed as a "last option" treatment. Equally scary.

However, whether it be by pure luck or fated destiny, we were pointed in the direction of an Environmental Doc. He promised my husband he would get to the root of his problems, and after a battery of blood tests, he did just that. Oddly enough, my husband was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. And had I not witnessed his reaction first hand of the "skin testing", I would have never bought it. Based on this dx, we eliminated all allergins from his diet, and with-in days of starting this "course of treatment" all sypmtoms of his depression, anxiety, and oddly enough, even his IBS dissapeared completely. I'm happy to report, he has been symptom free for almost 8 months. A far better result than he has ever gotten from his meds!

I'm offering this up as an alternative option, based solely on the results my hubby has had. Perhaps it's not for everyone.......

I wish you the best in achieving optimum health!!

All my best,

mj

Sometimes it takes up to 3 months for meds to work. In any case in my opinion Effexor has been a horrible drug for me. In 40% of people, Effexor causes side effects and the withdrawls are just not worth what little good they do. Reasearch Effexor on this board and Effexor withdrawl on the internet. In any case the drugs that you have listed are not the only ones out there to try.

Best wishes,
Sam

As Samantha has said, it can take a while for ADs to kick in. Eight days is not enough time to know whether or not this combo will work for you.

On the other hand, you might need to try some of the lesser known ADs, or have a mood stabilizer thrown into the mix. I would suggest getting a referral to a psychiatrist, if you aren't seeing one already, or psychopharmacologist if possible, and let the mental health experts tweak your meds.

Good luck.

Thankyou for the information very appreciated.

Id like to note that its been 11 days now and the depression has been relieved yet my social anxiety is still thriving quite well. I hope relief comes with time or a dosage increase, or even a different augmentation. Id like to also say that if you are suffering from severe depression I would not recommend wellbutrin as I believe its quite weak but I would try it after others have failed, it was 6 weeks of taking wellbutrin and I felt nothing not even side effects then 11 days after adding the effexor 150mg xr my depression is basically gone.