Anti-depressants

[bubbaflash]

After some information please.

My husband suffers with depression. This has been well controlled and he's been really well for the last few years taking sertraline. It was like a miracle drug!

However the setraline is no longer working and his depression has crept back up, and he has some anxiety. His GP said sometimes a drug stops working and switched him to Duloxetine. He did not do well on this drug, if anything it made it a lot worse.

He switched back to sertraline, and whilst better than Duloxetine, its still not working. After a phone consultation with GP yesterday he's switched him to Venlafaxine. Starts in the next few days once he's tapered.

The GP wasn't that helpful, quick phone chat and couldn't offer much guidance - it's so sad that MH seems to be treated in such a dismissive way

I'm after some information. Is it worth trying Venlafaxine? Has anyone else found sertraline stopped working, and if so what did you switch to?

I'm aware different drugs will have different effects for individuals, AIBU that I feel we've not been given proper information in which meds to try? The GP over the phone very much put the onus on my husband to decide, when's he's not in the best place and just wants to feel better!

Maybe swap to Fluoxetine?
You can now get testing in the UK to see which drugs work best for you (used to only get it in US).
I think he only company that does it here is Myogenes. You could contact them for prices.
advantage: you can discount drugs that don’t work best
disadvantage: test isn’t 100% accurate.

I've suffered MH for over 30 years after an horrific trauma.. had counselling on and off and spent time in a MH hospital.
I must have tried every antidepressant going.. But what works for you doesn't work for another.
For example Fluoxetine (Prozac) was awful for me.. l got really angry on it and used to smash things.
I've had seroxat.. Trazadine... amytriptaline.. Citralopam
I'm on Sertraline at the moment.. l was on 50mg for years.. recently I have started having counselling again.. after something from my past came back to haunt me.. so had my Sertraline increased and its definitely helping.
Maybe see about increasing the dose?You can go from 25 mg right up to 200mg in stages.

There are multiple different antidepressants available. Sertraline is an SSRI, and Duloxetine and Venlafaxine are SNRIs - considered "second line" antidepressants, generally have more side effects/harder to withdraw from than SSRIs.

I'm surprised his GP has gone straight from Sertraline to second line antidepressants without trying more first line ones. There is also Citalopram, Escitalopram, Fluoxetine and Paroxetine available which are SSRIs. There is also Mirtazapine which is a different one again.

GPs do often give patients a bit of choice with antidepressants as really they can't tell what will work, each is so individual to each person. Personally I have tried citalopram (which worked for a long time), sertraline (didn't work) and am now trying escitalopram. My GP wants to avoid SNRIs for now until we've tried more of the first line ones. But each GP has their own methods I suppose, and really no antidepressant is any better/worse than any other. They all just work differently for different people, so it's a case of trying them and seeing what happens.

Thank you, I was surprised that he didn't recommend trying another SSRI first before moving on to SNRI meds.....

I also came on to recommend increasing the dosage slightly? I’m on Sertraline, after citalopram didn’t work for me as it led me to gain so much weight I really feel sertraline works for me, it could be the dosage, worth a try?