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DH on three different antidepressants and constantly tired

3 replies

Antidepressantshelp · 23/07/2013 16:37

Hi - DH has a long history of severe anxiety. He also self medicated using cannabis but realised this was making him worse not better so he has been off that since the end of last year. He was on Lexapro for a long time but was inconsistent about taking it as he felt it made him too tired to function. He has been consistently taking it since he gave up the cannabis.

In addition to Lexapro, his GP prescribed Lyrica, which he has been on since January and in more recent months he also prescribed Zisprin. He is now on 15mg Lexapro (escitalopram), 300mg Lyrica (Pregabalin‎) and 15mg Zisprin (Mitrazapine). He was on 20mg Lexapro but the GP lowered it to maybe help with fatigue. He normally ends up going to bed after work, about 3pm until maybe 7 or 8 and then sleeps again from 12 until morning.

He is scared to experiment with reducing any of the medications in case the anxiety comes back - on a scale of 1-10 he says most days now it is about 2-3 (6-7 used to be a good day previously). He doesn't really know which medication is making him the most sleepy or which one is doing him the most good. He thinks the Lyrica might be the most helpful. The Zisprin was prescribed to help him sleep and he does find he can fall asleep and sleep for the full night with it, and he is afraid to stop taking it in case he can't sleep. He is also afraid to talk to the GP in case the GP reduces any of the meds (he has a long term mistrust of doctors and it is a miracle he even goes to this guy and has some faith in him).

The most immediate problem is that he has exams at the end of August and between work and sleeping he is finding it very hard to get any studying done. Of course he can't live long term like this either and is just currently lucky with his job that it is a short day.

Has anybody got any advice or experience of these drugs? I have googled and the most I can come up with is that Zisprin at a higher dose may cause less fatigue (sounds unusual I know). Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
CamelBalls · 23/07/2013 18:08

Sorry I don't know anything about those but hopefully someone can answer?

Can you see if you can go to the doctor on his behalf and speak for him?

Mirages · 23/07/2013 18:29

Based on my own experience Edronax (Reboxetine) is activating, and so is Aurorix (Moclobemide), which is older type antidepressant.

Antidepressantshelp · 24/07/2013 15:08

Thanks very much for the responses Camel and Mirages. I googled both those meds you mentioned Mirages. Neither of them have the dreaded sleepiness side effect so I will tell DH about them and ask him to ask his GP. If they work it will be an answer to a prayer. Hopefully the GP can tell us more. It's not really clear if they have more of an antidepressant effect or anti-anxiety (I think these things are 2 sides of the same coin to an extent). I wonder if they can be taken with other meds or if he would have to come off some things first... They sound really promising.

I really really appreciate the help, thanks so much.

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