Help! Is my dose too high?

[madamjen77]

Help!

26 days ago i was started on Clomipramine/Anafranil after i had a severe allergic reaction to Sertraline/Zoloft, i have been on my prescribed dose of 150mg for 14 days, whilst increasing it i felt absolutely fine, really felt that this might finally be the medication for me, but over the last week i have started feeling terrible with what i think are side effects.

The side effects i'm suffering are-
Tremors in my hands and arms
Involuntary muscle spasms throughout my body
Headache
Anxiety
Rapid heartbeat
Feeling down again
Pure O thoughts increasing
Nervousness

Could i possibly be on too much clomipramine for my body to handle, i'm going to see my Pdoc on Thursday, but i really don't think i can handle the way i feel until then, i was going to start decreasing the dose slightly myself tonight.

i would appreciate any words of wisdom

Jen x

Ps i've previously taken -

Citalopram for 1 day! ended up in A&E
60mg Prozac/Fluoxetine for 10 years until it pooped on me, worked fine before that.
225mg Venlafaxine/Effexor for 8 months, made my anxiety worse, did nothing for OCD.
100mg Sertraline/Zoloft for 16 days, was excellent until i suffed anafaletic shock and ended up looking like a marshmallow with eyes!

[JaneC]

Hi Jen, sorry you are feeling so bad . There aren't many clomipramine users on here but I took it for seven years. It sounds as though these could be side effects, although they are different to what I experienced personally (for me it was extreme sedation in the early stages). I don't think the dose you are taking is out of the ordinary but I never got anywhere near that myself. I also don't know if you have been on it long enough to experience withdrawal effects if you cut your dose but it's something to be cautious about.

If you really can't cope with the way you feel, I suggest phoning your psychiatrist in the morning and see what he/she advises (you could try ringing NHS 24 today but I don't know how much expertise they'd be able to offer).

Hope this helps in some way x

[madamjen77]

Hi Jen, sorry you are feeling so bad . There aren't many clomipramine users on here but I took it for seven years. It sounds as though these could be side effects, although they are different to what I experienced personally (for me it was extreme sedation in the early stages). I don't think the dose you are taking is out of the ordinary but I never got anywhere near that myself. I also don't know if you have been on it long enough to experience withdrawal effects if you cut your dose but it's something to be cautious about.

If you really can't cope with the way you feel, I suggest phoning your psychiatrist in the morning and see what he/she advises (you could try ringing NHS 24 today but I don't know how much expertise they'd be able to offer).

Hope this helps in some way x

Hi Jane,

Thanks for the reply, i think what i'm gonna have to do is use some diazepam until i can get to my appointment, i spoke to the prescribing doctor on the phone about 3 days ago and all he suggested was to split the dose to 50mg on the morning and 100mg before bed, but this has done nothing, the pdoc that i will be seeing on thursday is a new doc that i have never seen before, i don't have a regular psychiatrist as my new medication was prescribed through my local crisis intervention team.

So i'm going to go with my own instinct and slowly drop my dosage to 100mg over the next couple of days.

I'm just really fed up with all this messing around with medication, just want to feel normal again!

Take Care Jen