Which med for anxiety/depression?

[soulfly]

I'm 34yo male, had quite a bad case of C-DIFF back in 2014 (very high fever & white blood cells, severe D, severe joint pain so that I could barely walk). First I was put on Metronidazole after which I relapsed and then was put on Vanco which did get the job done, but intestines took a hard hit and I had IBS-D ever since.
Prior to c-diff, I was on antidepressant escilatopram (Cipralex, Lexapro) due to some anxiety/depression and I had good results with it. However after the c-diff I stopped taking it as I just wanted to heal and didn't want to take any additional medications that could affect my gut. Then after approximately 1 year (in 2015) I tried to take it again, but stopped after 3 weeks as it gave me D (in fact it took quite a while till my gut recovered again after this experiment).
Now I'm going through some difficult time in life again, even though I try to stay active (I work out regularly) and positive, I feel that it's taking toll on my mental health as well. After some research on the various antidepressants, I found Tianeptine (Stablon, Coaxil) which should have much weaker side-effects compared to other antidepressants. My doc agreed that this might be worth a try and prescribed it for me (12.5mg 3 times daily). I've been on it for one week now. It's truth that it does not affect my gut in a bad way (in fact I noticed some positive changes for my IBS), but oh boy does it make me feel weird. After the first pill in the morning I feel good (kind of high) for 3 hours and then just big crash, feel tired, irritable and lethargic. When I take another dose, it makes me feel just more sleepy and numb. Then in the evening I feel pretty bad and depressed. The depression it gives me is quite bad and I have to force myself to take it in the morning again. This is a shame as I had high hopes for this med and it does help with my IBS.

My question is if somebody has post c-diff IBS-D and is taking an antidepressant that doesn't make the D worse and has tolerable side effects?

Thank you

[NanciT]

Hello Soulfly and Welcome to the site Please read the first thread for all ew posters

Glad to hear that you are rid of CDIFF! But so often we are left with Post IBS which can be difficult to manage and deal with. As far as medications, everyone is going to be different and react differently. What works for one may not work for another. It is a matter of trial and error.

Have you checked in with your pharmacist? They can be a wealth of information and they will have your history of what you have taken in the past.

That is where I would head for the best advice, explain what is going on with the new medication and I am sure they will advise

Wishing you the best, it can be frustrating and also take time to find the right medication for you

NanciT

[soulfly]

NanciT wrote:
> Hello Soulfly and Welcome to the site Please read the first thread for all
> ew posters
>
> Glad to hear that you are rid of CDIFF! But so often we are left with Post
> IBS which can be difficult to manage and deal with. As far as medications,
> everyone is going to be different and react differently. What works for
> one may not work for another. It is a matter of trial and error.
>
> Have you checked in with your pharmacist? They can be a wealth of
> information and they will have your history of what you have taken in the
> past.
>
> That is where I would head for the best advice, explain what is going on
> with the new medication and I am sure they will advise
>
> Wishing you the best, it can be frustrating and also take time to find the
> right medication for you
>
> NanciT

Thank you NanciT, yes my doctor is aware of my history, however she does not have so much experience with c-diff and post infectious IBS. Myabe I will pay a visit to GI and see if he has any suggestions. I thought if anybody on this forum suffering from IBS-D had success with an antidepressant that will save me some trial and error.
BTW I today took just one pill of Tianeptine around noon, still noticed the crash after couple of hours, but without taking another pill I made it to the evening without feeling like a zombie. So I will probably stick with just one pill for couple more days and see how it goes.

[NanciT]

I would absolutely see your GI and explain. There are so may medications out there, they may actually know what will help IBSd and also the anxiety/depression.
You can also look in the search bar for anxiety/Depression meds and read up on what worked for others.

Feel better soon

NanciT

[georgina]

I have taken Tianeptine ,teoretically it has a similar action as a tryclicic antidepressant but it is not that powerfull , is mostly given to elders because it has minimum side effects. For me , i felt like this antidepressant wasn't doing anything so after a three months i decided to go off of it.
I know from my psychiatrist that the dosage can be reduced from 3 pills to 2 pills per day.If you feel like 3 pills per day are giving you nasty side effects , you can discuss with your doctor about reducing the dosage.

[MKW]

Hi, I had recurrent C Diff (three recurrences) and finally had a successful FMT in March 2017.
I have had IBS symptoms since about two months after the procedure. A GI doc prescribed me Levsin which helped some. But I ended up seeing my PCP about anxiety and he put me on klonopin. Turns out the Klonopin has helped me with my IBS symptoms greatly. Not perfect, but at least 50% improvement. I had never taken it before, and it definitely has greater muscle relaxant effects than Xanax. I take a low dosage - .5 mg daily and break the one pill into four quarters so take it four times a day. Seems silly but I stay level and never feel too altered. I have had no side effects. Of course physical addiction is always a factor with Benzos. But just saw my doctor Wednesday and we feel the benefit to my GI function outweighs the addiction potential. I feel my GI tract is just "hypersensitive" and somehow the klonopin is helping with that. Or it may just be the stress reduction factor. I don't care why. I just care it is helping. Also, I have read Amitryptilline is often prescribed for ibs, and many years ago when I was a young adult I suffered with depression and ibs-d. I was prescribed imipramine and later amitryptilline, and my symptoms were cured. I then had perfect GI function my whole life until getting c Diff at age 45. - Melanie

[Ril]

GI drs are very aware of which medications are good for anxiety and which antidepressants work both on anxiety/depression and on the GI tract as well so are prescribed specifically for IBS for both reasons. You should discuss it with your GI dr and afterwards dosage can be altered so drowsiness if it occurs can be minimized once your body gets used to the medication.

Rita

[Machaon]

For my anxiety I take 25mg Vitamin B complex, although in my elder years, I've been taking only half a pill. I've been taking it for around 50 years. It really calms me down.