Suggest Treatment For Persistent Depression Inspite Of Having Avanza

Posted on Mon, 28 Jul 2014

Question: Hi, I have been diagnosed with agitated depression. I have never had a history of this. I had stage 1 breast cancer 3 months ago , had surgery then radiology and after the radiology went into a depression. I tried effexor anti depressant and it had horrible side effects she was on for 6 weeks and has been off them for 3 weeks now. I had brain tension and pressure in my head on them and they seemed to make my anxiety worse. I was having panic attacks. I was then told to go have some valium which I am having 1 tablet at night to sleep and has started Advanza, half a tablet 30g at night. I have been told this will take a few weeks to kick in. I have already started with full body aching and muscle aching in her neck and down her legs and she is concerned this is the cancer coming back but has been advised by her oncologist that this cannot be. I am concerned as I have only been on it a couple of days.
I have decided to get my thyroid checked out as I cannot understand how this depression/anxiety could have come on so fast that maybe it is something to do with my thyroid as it is a lot of the same symptoms as hyperthyroidism. Can you offer and advise...
Do you know how this body aching can be alleviated as I was up all night with the pain of the aching...? I am 65 years old female.
Thanks

Answered by Dr. Ram Choudhary (13 hours later)

Brief Answer:
switching medicines may help

Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Welcome to healthcare Magic!

The Effexor and Avanza are new generation antidepressants which are fairly tolerated by much of the users but unfortunately that is not the case with you.
The pain may be associated feature of depression itself. Because you got adverse effect and no benefit with these medicines, you should be prescribed more classical type SSRI and antianxiety treatment.
The complex of features you are having resemble PTSD- Posttraumatic stress disorder again a variant of complex depression.

You should get Psychotherapy by a local psychiatrist and also get prescribed Sertraline 25 mg to start and make 50mg after 7days. Also take Clonazepam 0.5mg twice a day. Consult your treating doctor about these medicines. These medicines start effect slowly and need 2 week to show effects.

I hope the advise would be informative and useful for you.
Take Care!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj