Eight months on tianeptine (Stablon)

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. I just joined this group. I tried Paxil at the age of

21 in 1993 (1/2 tablet) and experienced severe panic attacks, anxiety

and electric shock-like sensations over the next few days, even though

I only took it _once_.

Then, I had tried Prozac in 1995 at a dosage of 1mg (elixir/liquid

using a dropper and putting a few drops in a glass of water) because I

had severe panic attacks on 20mg. (I have panic disorder with

agoraphobia and S.A.D.) Even 1mg was too much, so I lowered it to 0.5mg.

I started to completely lose my libido. I had no idea that Prozac was

the cause of it, but at least my depression was gone. However, after

two months of being on Prozac, I developed nausea and was passing

black, tarry stools. I went to the ER and the nurse told me I was

losing blood. An endoscopy confirmed gastritis and bleeding in the

stomach, but it wasn't major. I then developed rashes on my arms and

legs and it was determined that I was allergic to Prozac.

I had to quit Prozac and my libido began to come back, however, it

never returned fully and now, 10 years later, I have very little desire.

--- Tianeptine experience ---

I tried tianeptine in March 2005 and it did nothing for 12 days. Then

on day 13 I experienced some nervousness/jitteriness and lowered

appetite along with headaches from time to time. I had to fine-tune

the dosage but eventually, 1 tablet 3 to 4 times a day was the right

dose for me.

The nervousness and reduced appetite quickly disappeared and then a

significant anxiolytic/anti-anxiety effect and antidepressant effect

took hold. My asthma also improved.

I have to say that after 8 months of being on tianeptine (Stablon),

that I have little trouble with depression, no sexual side effects and

no panic attacks.

However, it doesn't seem to be a " miracle cure " for lowered libido in

my experience and opinion. It helps a little bit (for me...again,

your miles may vary as we are all different. No medication works the

exact same for everyone).

The real one that worked was amineptine (Survector). It was, sadly,

pulled off the market in 1999 but stocks remain in a few countries.

It is chemically related to Stablon, but it is a dopamine reuptake

inhibitor. Dopamine tends to reduce prolactin and can boost sex drive.

I started on amineptine two weeks ago, in addition to Stablon. It

seems that my sex drive is coming back, but not completely. Prior to

Prozac I was married and had a normal sex drive (e.g. every other day

or sometimes everyday).

However, it is better in that I can manage more than once a week, but

not always... but that is an improvement. The intensity of the

experience is also improved, but nothing like it was prior to Prozac.

Could this be age? I'm only 33, going on 34. Perhaps it was all

those years of stress and anxiety?

Untreated anxiety can cause the hippocampus to lose volume (size), so

I'm not sure. I've been under a lot of stress though over the past 10

years.

I read the previous posts about tianeptine and just thought I would

add my experience here.

Definitely, for me, it doesn't worsen libido and after you get past

the first few weeks, things (e.g. depression and anxiety) can get

better. In my case it got a lot better.

I'm still trying to find what is wrong with my libido as all of you

are. I hope it is nothing permanent.

Take care everyone. SSRIs are made by big drug companies who have

lots of fancy lawyers and enough money to put up enough smoke and

mirrors to fog the issue of ED, loss of libido and other sexual

dysfunction and keep it labeled as a " coincidence " or related to

" depression " , when we all know it is the SSRIs that caused it.

Even a psychiatrist I know published a paper about 3 patients who

suffered what appears to be permanent loss of libido after being on SSRIs.