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Originally Posted by Confusedgirl1984
amee200 Thanks for the info. Was your Dr. monitoring your blood sugar because you were on it? Is that something I should be getting checked? How was parnate for anxiety and weight compared to Nardil? Did you take that for a while, my psychiatrist and I discussed that one too.
10-20 lbs seems manageable for me, I've gained that or more on SSRI's. I just freaked when the pharmacist told me there was an average gain of 40 lbs over four months and I read someone gained 80.
The anti anxiety properties obviously haven't kicked in yet as I'm still obsessing over this.....I think I need to just wait and see. Sorry for all the questions.
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I had routine bloodwork done at my physical so blood sugar was part if the work up. It was a big jump from 85 to 136 so my pcp was alarmed. The thing about Nardil was the intense sugar craving and hunger. The craving were so bad I would eat brown sugar straight from the box... Very gross for me.
With the hunger, it was almost like there was no off switch. I quite literally never felt full. My pdoc gave me metformjn which can help stablize blood sugar, but I didn't take it for long because I didn't see a difference. My dad also had the sweet tooth/ hunger issues. No signs of diabetes.
I took Parnate for about a year 1/2 and if did do wonders for the depression, it definitely elevated my mood. It doesn't help as much with anxiety so that's something to consider if anxiety is a big issue for you. I expected no weight gain since the literature consistently says it is a weight neutral drug. However I gained 35 pounds on it. My pdoc disagrees with the literature and told me in clinical practice he finds that people gain weight on parnate. It seemed to be a lot of water weight with both meds as I had a lot of edema. I should also mention I had a hypertensive reaction while on parnate because I ate aged cheese at an Italian restaurant. I was fine but it was pretty scary. So it's true that you need to watch what you eat and drink. That's not why I stopped it though, it was the weight gain. Once I stopped the parnate and started Prozac (and Ritalin) I lost the 35 lbs pretty easily.
I would monitor your blood sugar if you do go with the Nardil, but I know it's not a typical side effect. Once on the Parnate, I gained more weight but the blood sugar went down. Weird huh?!
There are definitely pros and cons to consider and it really depends on what is realistic for you given your lifestyle. I found alternatives that while they don't work as dramatically as the MAOIs, they still suit me better with all things considered. I think for some who have no luck with other meds, they can be a miracle drug. I guess everyone has to pick their poison, so to speak 😉