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Old Aug 15, 2017, 09:47 AM
still_crazy still_crazy is offline
Grand Poohbah
 
Member Since: Oct 2016
Location: United States of America
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hi. gabapentin, lyrica, of course a benzodiazepine, but long term use can be problematic for a lot of people. buspar does help some people, although my former shrink told me she didn't much care for it, and it seemed to work best at boosting antidepressants.

another poster mentioned tca drugs. im no expert, but with lithium and tranquilizers on board, id be cautious, but some of them can be helpful. there's one...here in the US, the trade name is Surmontil. It isn't very popular, I don't know that it ever was a best seller or anything, but....chemically, its somewhat similar to clozapine. it can help with sleep in the short term, and over the long haul it can help with anxiety and mood w/o as much (over)stimulation as many other options.

there's also amoxapine. i think other posters have tried this psych drug. i haven't, although a former shrink mentioned it once, for an episode of particularly severe depression. its a tca that does double duty as a tranquilizer/"antipsychotic." given what you're already taking, I would think/assume that you'd want to talk about reducing or stopping the other tranquilizers if you wanted to try amoxapine.

amoxapine sometimes works more quickly for mood, anxiety, and agitation than other available options. i read an abstract for a small study, back when the 'atypicals' were all on patent and too expensive for many less affluent nations, that compared relatively high doses of amoxapine to risperidone, for psychotic disorders. the amoxapine was tolerated as well as the risperidone, and it had a more pronounced, beneficial impact on mood and anxiety symptoms.

hydroxyzine is an old school antihistamine that is frequently used for psychiatric indications. doses seem to vary wildly, from 50mgs total per day to 200+mgs per day. in the 50s, it was sold as an "atarctic"--hence, one of the old brand names, "Atarax"-- a drug that could induce a state of calm without excessive sedation. long term use seems to be reasonably safe, although there are case reports here and there of tardive dyskinesia over the long haul.

now and then, some anti-epileptic drugs are used in agitation and anxiety. personally, if you think this might be a viable option, I'd try something that doesn't require much blood work, such as trileptal or lamictal. lamictal, of course, can help reduce the frequency of lapses into depression. trileptal (for me...) seems helpful for agitation and for hypomania, not so much for full on mania or depression.

every once in a blue moon, psychiatrists will pull out a barbiturate. i had an acquaintance who was given phenobarbital as a night time sedative. phenobarbital is also an anti-epileptic. it has a long half life, so a night time dose can often reduce anxiety and agitation during the day. why this person's shrink went for the phenobarbital over something more modern, i have no idea, but it did help.

i can't really think of anything other than those options. i hope this helps.
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