Mental Health The antidepressant train rolls on. Vraylar now?

[Shant]

Hi there. 20+ year heroin/methadone/fentanyl addict. I moved to Greenville, SC where it’s dry as hell and finally got cleanish. Still on 2mg of subs. I thought getting clean would be good for me. 7 months in, all I am is depressed & angry all day. Zoloft failed, Wellbutrin caused obsessive thoughts, although I probably jumped to 450mg too quickly (6 weeks or so). Tried Effexor next, 37.5mg. 4 weeks into it started chattering my teeth badly. Quit that 2 weeks ago.

Now they wanna try Vraylar. But this is a primary doctor and doesn’t know much. I understand that it’s typically added to other SSRIs, but she wants to give it to me by itself. It supposedly works on multi neurotransmitters. That’s all I know.

I’m not jumping on another antidepressant without some input from people who actually know. What can you guys tell me? As always, thank you in advance. Can’t tell you what this place has meant to me over the years.

- Shant

 

[Shant]

If this is in the wrong forum feel free to move me, mods. Thanks

 

[paranoid android]

Vraylar like most antipsychotics are added to antidepressants to make them more effective. Generally they arent prescribed on their own for depression. I have no personal experience with this med and i dont think its even available in Canada yet. But basically its a dopamine and serotonin antagonist.

 

[Shant]

It’s an anti-psychotic…don’t those tend to slow you down? IE depress dopamine?

 

[paranoid android]

It’s an anti-psychotic…don’t those tend to slow you down? IE depress dopamine?

Ya they re dopamine antagonists but for some reason when combined with antidepressants they may help depression. I say may because im not sure if theres any hard evidence to back those claims up.

Personally if i had depression i would try S ketamine for it. I am not depressed but it did elevate my mood and that was over a month ago that i took it now.

 

[Flynnal]

I really find it hard to believe that dopamine antagonists can improve depression. I wish it were so, but my experience with TAPs and AAPs have been anything than good. Generally make you feel nasty and one, Abilify, made me feel like killing someone (I won't be specific about who it was but it was a specific type of person), and I had to stop right away. It made me sleepy as fuck as well as giving me terrible inner restlessness.

 

[Shant]

Yikes! That’s exactly what my concern was. For someone like me, who has to summon all his resources just to take a shower, spending literally half the day in bed convincing myself to get up, dopamine seems like the last drug I’d want to take an antagonist for.

I can only guess, but if you find yourself benefiting from a dopamine antagonist, that would imply some level hyper dopamine dysfunction . Probably accompanied by other common symptoms from over active dopamine, like schizophrenia or general anxiety.

Having said that, I’m guessing there’s a lot more to this that I’m simply ignorant of.

Question is this: Has anybody had good results with dopamine antagonists who don’t have over active dopamine issues?

PS - is there a better forum for this thread?

Thanks