Antidepressants and dryness

[Deb 27]

I missed taking my antidepressant for 2 days and noticed that I am not nearly as dry!!  But, I need an antidepressant. What should I do? It was celexa. I know I can't take cymbals b/c it causes dryness.  The celexa was causing other side effects. It was making my brain fog worse too! I certainly didn't need that. Any suggestions for me? I was thinking about the supplement SAMe.

[Jasper]

Wellbutrin worked very well for me when I was depressed in 2011.

I had no noticeable side effects from it.

[Sharon]

Anti-depressants are known to cause dryness.
I'm not familiar with the supplement you mentioned Deb,
but the general direction of supplements may be a good bet.
Have you tried St. John's Wort?

[eija]

With antidepressants there really isn't any other way than trial and error. Which is really annoying, because they take a while to start working and often you can't just quit one and start the other but you must do that gradually, too.

I've tried I don't know how many antidepressants. Too many, I think... Most of them caused drying (even if I wasn't dx'd with Sjs back then and don't remember having symptoms of it, either). The first ones tried were SSRI's like citalopram is. By far the best for me has been Cymbalta, which is a SNRI. You said you can't take it because it causes dryness - have you tried it or do you just expect it to, because they say it might? For me the drying effect from Cymbalta is not noticeable. Another one I could tolerate was Venlafaxine (also SNRI I think), but it also didn't help me in any way. The last one I tried (alongside Cymbalta) was Brintellix which was very tolerable, too, but didn't bring any added help so I quit it and now continue with Cymbalta only.

I'm on 60 mg of C which they say is not a big dose. The maximum is 120 if I recall correctly, but I couldn't tolerate it. The maximum amount, and even 90 mg, caused horrible night sweating and constipation so it was brought back down to 60 mg. That's why they suggested I tried other meds next to it, to maybe have better help with less side-effects.

So, since you say you need an antidepressant I suggest you see a psychiatrist who knows these meds best, and work with him to try to find the best med for you.

[Maria3667]

Hi Deb,

As an alternative to anti-depressants I was eventually prescribed Seroquel - an anti-psychotic which also has mood brightening effects. Certainly helps me sleep better too... No drying effects on low dosages. Another bonus for me is its anxiolytic effects, which I certainly need in this stressed up world ...

Good luck!

[Deb 27]

 Thanks for the replies.....  I took St. Johns wort years ago but  can't take it now b/c of other meds. It interacts with a lot of meds.
I took cymbalta, it made me anxious and gave me high BP. I am very sensitive to meds.............. drives me and my docs nuts.  My Dr. prescribed effexor, so I am going to try it.