Asked by Jayden Harlow, Los Angeles, California
Can you suggest alternatives for depression sufferers who have experienced serotonin syndrome? I've suffered from dysthymia and major depressive episodes for my entire life. Until recently, I controlled my depression through strenuous exercise, but returning to graduate school forced me to try antidepressants for the first time. After having adverse reactions to five different SSRIs, I was recently diagnosed with serotonin syndrome. Most of the information I've found talks about treating the syndrome itself but says nothing about what to do next.
Mental Health Expert
Dr. Charles Raison
Emory University Medical School
Sorry to hear about your troubles, but fortunately, there is a simple answer to your dilemma that is likely to help you. The answer is: Try an antidepressant that does not have appreciable serotonin activity. The most obvious choice in this regard would be bupropion (brand name Wellbutrin), an antidepressant that affects the norepinephrine and dopamine systems, but leaves serotonin untouched. Another option would be an older antidepressant called desipramine (brand name Norpramin). For most people, this medication will have more side effects than bupropion, but for some people, it is remarkably effective and easy to take.
If neither of these medications works or is tolerable, you have a couple of other options. There is an antidepressant called reboxetine, which never made it to the U.S. but is widely used in Europe and Canada. Reboxetine works entirely through the norepinephrine system and has no direct effects on serotonin whatsoever. You wouldn't be the only person in the U.S. getting this drug from overseas or Canada if you and your physician decided it was worth a try.
The usefulness of my final medication option depends on what you mean by serotonin syndrome. This phrase has been used to describe a wide range of symptoms, from mild discomfort to death. Mild serotonin syndrome merges imperceptibly into what I would just call serotonin side effects. These often include jitteriness, headaches, difficulty sleeping at night with somnolence during the day, upset stomach and anxiety. At the far extreme, serotonin syndrome describes a lethal condition in which body temperature goes up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you are having difficulty with milder symptoms, another antidepressant medication that might work for you is mirtazapine (brand name Remeron). This medication affects serotonin, but affects a wide range of serotonin receptors in addition, with the result that most people have far fewer serotonin-induced side effects. But there is a downside -- mirtazapine can make people gain significant weight, so you would need to balance this into the equation.
Finally, many people who cannot tolerate SSRIs find that if they start at very low doses and go up very, very slowly, they are able to eventually do well with full doses of medications that they found unbearable when started at higher doses. So if your clinician has been starting you at doses like 20 milligrams a day of fluoxetine, citalopram (brand name Celexa) or paroxetine (brand name Paxil), 50 milligrams a day of sertraline (brand name Zoloft) or 10 milligrams a day of escitalopram (brand name Lexapro), you might discuss with him or her the possibility of starting at a quarter of these doses and going up gradually.
Hope one of these options works for you!
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