Depression Medication

[DGabriel10]

Mom is severly depressed. I know this is a result of her alzheimer. She has been on Lexapro for a couple of years. About 8 weeks ago, after several melt downs and threats of suicide, we took her to the doctor who upped her Lexapro dosage from 10mg to 20mg. The new dosage made her lethargic for a while but she is back to her suicidal depression worse than before. I suspect part of the suicidal tendencies are coming from the Lexapro. Does anybody here have any experience with ALZ and Depression and could recommend any medication that might be helpful. I am calling her doctor in the morning but since he is not very knowledgeable about ALZ I am not sure how much help he will be.....

Love, Deb

[angel_bear]

Well, according to my drug book, the doctor has her on the maximum dosage for Lexapro. It has a long half-life of 30 hours (stays in the body) and some of it's adverse affects (and other drugs just like it) are: palpitations, tachycardia, hypotension, dizzy, tremors, headaches, twitching, forgetfullness (Just what an AD patient needs), anxiety, nervousness, aggravated depression (sounds like your mother already and these are only *maybe* effects) nausea, diarrhoea, altered taste, fatigue,insomnia, decreased libido, rash AND vision disturbances.

*phew*

Lexapro is in the "Selective Serotonin reuptake inhibitor list, you might want to ask your doctor if any of the Monoamine Oxidase inhibitors might now be in order (next line of attack of depression) or the Tricyclic and other related antidepressants. Forwarned is forarmed ...

THAT being said, I have a few residents on anti-depressants. It took about 3 days to make a noticeable change and about 4 weeks for it to be fully working. My lady missed a couple of doses the other week and was bed-bound in misery until her "happy pills" came back into stock.

goodluck

[fourt9rkim]

Question about these meds....my mother was prescribed Paxil back in March for depression/anger, and it finally started calming her down after about a month. At the end of June, she was hospitalized for CHF/heart attack for 2.5 days. I could have sworn that I grabbed her Paxil when the paramedics were at the house and asked to see all of her meds. While inpatient, she was prescribed Seroquel on discharge by the attending physician due to her observed combativeness/night agitation.

Her refills of Paxil ran out a couple of weeks ago, and her primary refused refills, saying the Seroquel worked the same way. Well, after about 3 days, she fell right back into that verbally/physically abusive mood, and has been this way for a frickin' week! I also blamed the full moon!

I called her doc's office, informed them of this, and they called me back saying that because the Paxil was not on the discharge report, they couldn't continue to prescribe... they had to go by what was on the discharge report. They said she needs to be seen so they can re-evaluate her....well, getting her to go is like talking to a brick wall.

Can the effects of the Paxil leave the body that fast, when it takes so long to become completely effective? She is back into that depressive state, not believing that anyone cares about her, that everyone hates her, blah blah blah

[angel_bear]

HI there

Paxil isn't in my drug book (mine's australian) so it must have another 'name' that it goes by ....

Other than that, if you call the original presribing doctor (he who ordered it first) and get in to see him as fast as possible.

There is a drug here called Paxam (which might be similar) that is in the same range that your looking at, but it says it only takes 6 months to build up a tolerance to the drug ... so maybe it's time to change her to something anyway.

Ring the doc. Better to be safe than sorry.

Cheers

[kathryn55]

Hi Deb,
My mum was prescribed CIPRAMIL 20mg once daily for her depression. She has been taking these for over a year now and they work quite well for her. Having said that, my mum's depression wasn't as bad as your mum's sounds. I hope that your able to sort this out soon. Take Care. Kathryn.