Am I on the right meds?

[SteveW]

I wouldn't worry about Ramipril and Losartan. Pip is right about ACE Inhibitors like Ramipril and cough and the alternative group
Angiotensin II antagonists not having it.

However your only real concern is if Velafaxine is going to affect your Ramipril. The answer is pretty much No. I had a quick look at
a reference source and didn't find any interaction mentioned. Good luck.

Love

Steve

[Grace]

Hello Russel,

I took Venlafaxine for about 12 years and was a good antiD for me. Unfortunetly after these quite long years it lost its effect on me and had to find something else.
I also suffer from hypertension but it remained under control with the right medication. There is quite an array of anti-hypertensives whilst with antidepressants one may have to stick with what works.
It's true that Venlafaxine is known to increase blood pressure but in my experience it didn't go as high that it went out of control. Besides as the antiD sets in the side affects tend to normalise too.
I have been on Ramipril for some time but it made me cough too much and it had to be changed.

Grace

[Russell]

I have just added another post re-quitting meds all together. I don't want to be addicted to varying meds forever. Following 2 days on new meds I am going to go back to 20mg citalopram for a short time and then try one every other day. How bad do you expect the first few days will be? Don't want to put my body through too much, but the idea of disturbed sleep, dependency and worst of all no sex life has got to be worth a try!

[Russell]

Bit personal, but what can be done to overcome sexual problems relating to use of ventaflaxin? The meds are making me feel better, but I (and my wife) need a healthy sex life. I still feel aroused but things aren't working.

[Grace]

i'm very sorry to hear about this side-effect! You might like to taolk to your specialist before you stop taking Venlafaxine at all. There are other meds which don't have this particular side-effect. Besides you may need another kind of medication for your mood cycles.

Grace

[Russell]

First day back at work and I have crashed through the floor! Had to leave the building for 30 mins because I new I was going to start crying at any moment.Is this normal? I have been doing so well.This feels worse than anything I have felt so far. I feel I can't do my job anymore,unable to teach and panicking about the future. Help!

[SteveW]

It sounds that you have gone through one of your cycles. A mild high followed by an almighty crash. You could persist with the Venlafaxine and hope it lifts you out of the depression but I don't think I would. I think you need to explicitly deal with the issue of Bipolar with your doctor. I think I would be saying I think I am Bipolar and need to be on a first line mood stabilizer drug like Depakote.

Fashions change in psychiatry and the present fashion with Bipolar is to treat it with a mood stabilizer alone. If you tell your doctor what has happened he is going to have to change his prescription.

I didn't want to raise it with you but there are plenty of people who would say Venlafaxine isn't much of a mood stabilizer if at all.

I used to teach difficult kids back in the 70's and with bipolar depression you are going to be struggling. You might need to go on the sick. I hope not but it is a possibility. Bipolar is a serious illness.

Sorry for not doing a longer answer but I am not doing too well myself at the moment.


Steve

[Russell]

So sorry to hear you're low,this is one cruel disease. Really good of you to take the time to reply to my post,when you have problems of your own. The strange thing today was my crash was very intense, much more than previously, but lasted for 4 hours and has now almost passed.