Depressed from taking Anti-Depressants??

[BT2008]

Has anyone become depressed when taking anti-depressants?

I experienced a lot of horrible side-effects with Amitriptyline--hyperactivity, mental confusion, dissociation, panic and anxiety attacks, insomnia, and terrible nightmares (when I could sleep), but it also opened the door wide for "very clear and profound reasons to commit suicide"!! I took it for almost a month, and I was sure I was going to lose my mind! Naturally, I stopped taking it...

Imipramine wasn't quite as bad as the Amitriptyline, but I still had hyperactivity, restlessness, some panic and anxiety, insomnia and even worse nightmares (again, whenever I was able to actually go to sleep). I wasn't as tempted "to actually follow-through" with committing suicide as I was when on the Amitriptyline, but the "profound thoughts" about "the practicality of doing so" kept circling around in my head most of the time. Again, after three weeks, I stopped taking that one too.

I took both of those drugs back in October/November.

Last week my GP gave me some Cymbalta samples to see if they would help my pain. After only one week, however, this drug was making me HORRIBLY DEPRESSED! I have felt like a black cloud has been hanging over my head all the time, and/or a heavy, heavy burden has been weighting me down. I have had no energy or "will" to do anything! I have had to "make myself" get up and take a shower every day. All I have wanted to do is sleep and cry all of the time.

I was supposed to up my dose from 30mg to 60mg last night, but I was afraid it would just make all of these things doubly worse! So I didn't take it last night--and today I already feel A LOT BETTER!:)

Has this happened to anyone else? Can anti-depressants actually make some people depressed?? Or, am I just an "odd duck"??

BTW: None of these drugs have even come close to touching my pain!

Thanks,
~Beth

[Julie B]

Boy, there is a lot more here than anyone here can address, but to theorize about your basic question, because antidepressants affect the neurotransmitters, it seems possible that the drug itself is making the depression worse. The other possibility is that what you were taking before WAS working, despite the side effects, and now the Cymbalta is NOT working, so it is revealing the underlying depression more acutely.

The bottom line is that you need to get back to your doctor ASAP. Don't let this go on and on...........

Let us know what you end up doing?

[BT2008]

...it seems possible that the drug itself is making the depression worse...so it is revealing the underlying depression more acutelyHey Julie,

I'm sorry, I don't think I positioned my question very well!

I am not being given these drugs for treating depression! All three of these drugs have been given to me to hopefully control my bladder pain instead of having to take narcotics.

My point was: I am not depressed EXCEPT when I am on these drugs! I feel fine emotionally and mentally most all of the time.

This does not mean that I don't get an occasional case of "healthy and normal sadness" at having to live with severe IC or "terribly angry" at times because of the way my life has turned out -- especially when I am exhausted and have been in pain for days on end. Avoiding such occasional sadness and anger, I would think, is near to impossible.

But, so far, I have been successful at avoiding the potential of "clinical depression"--a situation that so often occurs from having to live with a painful and debilitating chronic disease.

Of course, I am still a bit of a newbie--with only a little over 9 months of living with the severe pain of my IC. So, I don't know how I will feel two-years from now or five-years from now. I may well become clinically depressed before all is said and done!

If/when that should occur, however, I would never hesitate to seek counseling or to take a medication should I need to do so in order to help me cope.

I hope I didn't scare anyone with my unclear question! I am not, nor have been, suicidal since being on the Amitriptyline and Imipramine last fall. Plus, I feel so much better since not taking the Cymbalta last night! The "black cloud" has now dissipated and the "heavy burden" has disappeared! This is why I know that it was the Cymbalta that was causing my problems.

So, that is why I was wondering if taking "anti-depressants" for pain has actually made anyone else "depressed" -- who wasn't depressed already.

Thanks so much for your caring and concerned response though!:)
~Beth

p.s. I suffered from clinical depression/post-partum depression 25 years ago after the birth of my younger son. So, I know the signs and symptoms of my personal depression threshold. Also, my husband is very familiar with the signs of depression as well, so he would alert me if he thought I was having a problem.
~b

[Preacher-Girl]

You're not alone. I thought I would lose my mind completely when I took Elavil 2 weeks ago. I wasn't depressed either...I took it for my bladder! Some people just can't take them. I am actually considering something called Trazodone which is not as strong as the others. But I need to find out if it will help my nocturia.

A doctor suggested I not take Cymbalta due to reactions I have had in the past. Sometimes, I think it's best to speak with someone in the psychiatric field. They really know the antidepressants more than regular docs.

I hope you get some relief soon :)

[Briza]

Cymbalta knocked me out for a week...I could't even wake up to go to work... I discontinued because of that obviously....but I did not make the connection til a relative told me I was acting really out of it. That's how out of it I was on Cymbalta. I do know many others have had success with it but it was not for me.
I have not found that any of the many antidepressants relieve my pain but have found one SSRI that helps keep my head screwed on straight (most of the time lol) without any side effects.

Elavil (Amiptryptiline) has caused me few side effects but no pain relief, tho it does help immensely with my frequency and nocturia at just 10 mg. The tri-cyclic class of antidepressants even used at low doses do seem to have more of a rep for causing more side effects than the SSRIs and SNRIs.
Hope you find what works for you and yes, sometimes a psychiatrist is better equipped to deal with antidepressant issues regardless of the class, but even then seems some people just can't tolerate them. Definitely an issue to be discussed with your dr. Take care!

[ICNDonna]

I had a really bad experience with amitriptyline. I was put on a very low dose to hopefully help with pain. It was supposed to help me relax, but it did the exact opposite! My blood pressure shot up to 200+/110 and my pulse was racing.

My response to this medication is unusual, but it can happen. My doctor (of course) told me to stop taking it.

Donna

[Preacher-Girl]

I had the same response Donna did.