# Clomipramine added yesterday



## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

I really wasn't sure where to post this, because--as of this moment--I really don't HAVE any personal experience with clomipramine, but it didn't seem to fit anywhere else. Anyway...

When I saw my psychiatrist yesterday, I asked him about clomipramine. I had--yet again!--been researching treatments for depersonalization (which I have, along with severe depression), and had come across a [small] study that showed promising results using it. So we discussed it and decided to give it a whirl, and I started taking it last night. I'm starting with 50mg per day for a week, then upping it to 100mg, and we'll see what happens.

I've suffered (and I really do mean that) with DP/DR, 24/7, since I was 17 (I'm 52 now). It took 19 years of futility, being told over and over again that I was depressed--just depressed, nothing else--before finally getting a correct diagnosis of dissociation.

Regardless, over the years (starting at 19 if I remember correctly), I've been on SO MANY drugs...I can't even recall them all. But I know they included tricyclics, SSRIs, and even MAOIs. I've had more talk therapy than I'd like to remember--since most of it had to be paid out of pocket! The depression would always improve, for a while, after another round of therapy and/or meds, but NOTHING ever had the slightest effect on the DP/DR. So I'd basically given up all hope that anything would help.

I'm pretty jaded now, because of 35 years of experience, so I'm honestly not very optimistic about this latest combination of meds, but I guess I still think it's worth a try. :roll: I recently started using Xanax (which knocks me out, so I can't use it if I have to go anywhere), and last night I started the clomipramine; these are in addition to 450mg of Wellbutrin and 40mg of Celexa. (I was suicidally depressed, which is why I started seeing a shrink again recently, so the Wellbutrin and Celexa/Lexapro were for the depression; the Xanax and clomipramine are for the DP/DR.)

I'd love to hear about the experiences--positive or negative--anyone else has had with these particular meds and their impact on DP/DR.

(Sorry for the length of this...I really didn't intend to write so much.)


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## flipwilson (Aug 19, 2006)

I took it for 6 months, and im actually still debating whether to go back on it. It definatley took away my anxiety and DR, but the Dp remained, not to mention it made me so [email protected]#$% tired during the day even though i took it at night. I will say that it took me out of my shit routine of 3 months in my bedroom and eliminated my panic, and i started doing some art work again. I also only took 25mg, which is why i may start it again and get to a much higher dose and see what happens, but im get worried it will destroy my sex drive at a higher dose which is why i am reluctant. Might as well give it a go.

peace.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

I never found amitriptyline which is a older dirtier tricyclic then clomipramine to dampen my sex drive at all or cause any sexual dysfunction. I was at 150mg's taken at night and thats the recomended max out patient dose.

It also never made me drowsy at all during the day time and amitriptyline causes much more drowsiness then clomipramine due to it's strong anti-cholinergic side effect's. I actually felt more alert during the daytime because i slept much better during the night. It's one of the best sleep meds ive been on the only annoying side effect was the restless legs it sometimes gave me but clonazepam stopped that.

But everyone reacts different to every medication and amitriptyline is different then clomipramine. It has a pretty strong action on norepinephrine which makes it different then clomipramine which mainly only acts on serotonin. Clomipramine is a pretty strong serotonin reuptake inhibitor too just as strong as just about any ssri id say. So it could cause some sexual dysfunction.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

I had, from what I understand, a very atypical reaction to clomipramine. I was told to take it at night, since it was a very sedating drug. Surprise! Each time I took it, about 5-7 hours later, I would get this horribly energetic feeling. Kinda like drinking several cups of coffee at once. I constantly felt I had to stretch, and move around. After a couple days, (and having looked up that I should have been feeling tired, not energetic) I even started considering that the pharmacy had given me the wrong pills. I brought the pills to a different pharmacy, and they confirmed them as being the right ones.

Oh well, now my psychiatrist wants me on Luvox... Round-and-around the pharmacy we go...


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## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

In the few days since I started taking clomipramine, I've slept better than I had in a long time--and I'm having this weird feeling upon waking in the morning: I don't feel like a total zombie. (That's how I normally feel, regardless of what meds I'm taking.) Normally, when I wake up in the morning, I feel so tired it's as if I didn't sleep at all. I'd hardly say that I'm ENERGETIC now, but there is marked improvement. :lol:

I'm finding that it's not causing drowsiness during the daytime...no, wait, that's not exactly correct. I'm not sure how to word this. It's not making me feel drowsy in the sense that it's preventing me from doing other things (like today, for example, I was out all day--about 12 hours--and didn't feel drowsy). However, when I'm home, I find that the mere act of lying down will have me sound asleep taking a nap for a couple hours. So I don't know!

Oh, before I forget! There has been NO CHANGE yet in the DP/DR...but I have only taken 3 doses so far.


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## flipwilson (Aug 19, 2006)

from what my docs have told me, you wont feel any significant difference until about the 3 week mark.


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## therese cowen (Oct 2, 2007)

Hi,
I was just wondering how the clomipramine was going. Any improvement to the DP/DR yet? I have tried a few drugs, currently taking amitriptyline, but has had no effect on the DP. 
Please keep us posted.


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## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

Therese, sorry I didn't see this sooner. It's been 2-1/2 weeks since I started the clomipramine and, unfortunately, I can't report any improvement...yet. But from the comment flipwilson made, it's still a little too soon. Also, I must point out that a few days after I started it, I was hit with the worst tragedy I've ever had in my life: My best friend's suicide, which I *wrote about* on the _Depersonalization & Derealization_ board. That sent me into the worst, most extreme DP I've ever had--even my DR came back--and I really thought I was going to lose it. I don't think ANYTHING could help under those circumstances.


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2007)

Personally, i hated the stuff, it was my first and last tricylic. Sexually, it would take me almost an hour, and that was with a girl, imagine without haha. Also, i would have an appetite for new things, and no longer an appetite for my favorite foods, it was a really really weird experience


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## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

Well, crap. It's been over two months now and I'm afraid I have to say the clomipramine didn't do the trick. I did start having some strange feelings...sensations...something, and I wondered if I was "coming back," but nothing really came of it. I've also added Risperdal (slightly more than a month ago), and it's not doing anything either.

My current cocktail: Wellbutrin, Celexa, Xanax, Risperdal, Clomipramine, trazodone...and no change. I'm still horrifically depressed and dissociated, and now that I've given the new meds time to kick in, I'm disappointed, too.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

Shit thats a load of anti-depressants. Id drop the clomipramine atleast because you don't really need 2 serotonin reuptake inhibitors and it's kind of dangerous because of the serotonin syndrome risk. Maybe getting rid of the trazodone too and adding remeron to the wellbutrin wouldnt be a bad idea. Im not too sure of that mix though it should be safe but remeron is a damn complicated drug.

Also risperdal made me pretty damn depressed but i dont know that could have been just me. I took it for bipolar and it did jack shit and just made me horribly depressed.

Another thing is wellbutrin, risperdal, and clomipramine all raise the seizure risk so thats another thing to look out for.


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