non-antidepressant meds for OCD?

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My OCD has been causing me lots of problems all my life. I've been wasting more time than usual lately due to getting thoughts & urges in my head that I have to act on. I'm wondering if there's any medication for it that are not antidepressants. I've been through lots of antidepressants a few years ago for depression & other things & none of them had ever helped my OCD & I had lots of side-effects on them.

Yes, but they are not for long term treatment of OCD and they tend to have worse side effects than the anti-depressants.

A better option for you would likely be a CBT program.

What are the other meds & What's CBT

Anafranil (clomipramine) is a tricyclic, non-SSRI anti-depressant used for OCD. It was the first OCD medication. It is my miracle medication. Atypical anti-psychotics such as Abilify and Seroquel are being tried for OCD that hasn't responded to SSRIs. Drugs such as riluzole (originally made for the treatment of ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease) that affect glutamate in the brain are showing promising results in some treatment-resistant OCD patients. Unfortunately, all of these medications have their side effects. That is the curse of psychiatric medications at this point in time.

I tried Anafranil a couple weeks ago but I had to quit it after a week because it made me really shaky. I been on Abilify, Seroquel & other anti-psychotics years ago for other things & they never helped my OCD & I had problems with ticks/twitching, stuttering/slurring on them. Other psych meds I tried included Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac, Cymbalta, Zoloft, Zyprexa, Geodon, Risperdal, Lithium, Remeron, Klonopin, Xanax that I remember off the top of my head rite now. I was not on most of those for long due to side-effects. I tolerated Lexapro, Prozac, Klonopin, & Xanax well but they didn't help my OCD or anxiety & I think anti-depressants made me depressed in the end because the depression I had was better shortly after I weaned myself off of them than it was the entire time I was on them. Only medication I'm on now is Buspar. I started it a few months ago because of anxiety & panic attacks. My anxiety is a lot better & I have not had any major panic attack sense I been on it. Only side-effect I have from Buspar is bruising more easily. I think my OCD & anxiety issues were the cause of the mental breakdown I had when I was 20 that turned into psychotic-depression. I kept obsessing about things & it caused me to have lots of panic attacks. I'm not having the panic attacks now but I'm still having obsessive thoughts & compulsions thou not experiencing the anxiety I used to with it is a big help. I think the anxiety I had was only half the problem & I could be more functional if my OCD would be a little better. I'm not sure what else might be good for me to try. I'm going to research Riluzole a bit latter today or tonight

Hi Nick007

I believed I mentioned to you in another thread:

'Fluvoxamine' (aka 'Luvox' or 'Faverin') for OCD.

It may Not be the right medication for you and all people react differently to medications - but given what you've stated in your post I noticed you've not tried the "favoured" Ocd medication - Fluvoxamine.

It was my very first medication and later I dropped it because I wanted to be "normal" (i was in denial of my conditions at the time about 5 to 6 years ago), and began trying other meds. Lexapro, Zoloft, Prozac and Anafranil did not work for me.

Now I'm back on Fluvoxamine and It's been about a month. My 4th week I increased dosage to 200mg (4 tablets) and am slowly "recovering" from my depression. (My o.c. is more of the rumination sort - thoughts/worries + a little bit of cleaning and germ-uncomfortability).

Yes, there are the typical side effects that come along with it - but as they always say:
cancer patients, diabetes patients, hypertension patients take their meds for Life too (with side effects) - as with any patient with ocd.

We're simply helping ourselves be as "functional" as possible.


Hope that helps
Look forward to your positive responses.

skribble

I noticed skribble. I looked Luvox up; I'm hesitant because it's an SSRI but I stumbled on a forum post on some site; some hypothetical topic like If there was a med that only treated OCD & completely cured it What would changed? A couple mentioned that Luvox & Anafranil were the closest meds to something like that. I tried Anafranil out & it seemed to help a little the 1st couple days but I couldn't tolerate the side-effects. I got a prescription for Neurontin which is a seizure med but some online said it helps their OCD & I have a tremor disorder it's occasionally used to treat. The interactions checker on Drugs.com says Luvox can interact with it & also with Buspar which I am also on. I don't want to risk taking Luvox with Neurontin but I might try Luvox if Neurontin doesn't help &/or causes bad side-effects. I'll start trying Neurontin tonight or within the next couple nights when I get it.
Thanx

sure thing nick
thanks for your response.

I would say - Don't read up too much on what Other people are saying. As you probably already know having tried different medications yourself - they all work differently for everyone.

What's the Buspar you're taking for?

Look forward to hearing on your updates here with the Neurontin. I wish you all the best!


- skribble

CBT is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

continued...
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthin ... s/cbt.aspx

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/r ... te=LA&s6=1

^^^^Louisiana therapists who offer that therapy...

It's good to get ideas thou. Neurontin is being researched as a potential treatment for OCD. It seemed appealing to me sense it's not a psych med & it's sometimes used to treat tremors. I took the 1st pill a little while ago when I ate a snack & I feel normal so for. I'm going to start taking it 2wice a day in a couple days if I don't notice any bad side-effects. Dosage can be increased a lot depending on what disorder is being used to treat; dose for OCD & tremors is a bit less.

I'm taking Buspar for anxiety. I started it like 5 months ago after having a bad panic attack. I was worrying a lot about a relationship & was afraid I would screw things up if I didn't get my anxiety under control. I did a bit of research on anxiety medication & Buspar was appealing to me because it's the only med that's specially for anxiety; Generalized Anxiety is it's only FDA approved use. I haven't really had a panic attack since I started it & I'm a little more relaxed & don't feel like I'm taking any kind of meds at all. I thought my issues were anxiety but after being on it a bit & not being too nervous i now realize that my issues are more OCD & the anxiety was only some of the problem.


Thanx for that info hyperlexian I'll read up on CBT this weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be interested in trying it thou because I had bad luck with psychs & counselors/therapist & the only insurance I have is Medicare & I'm paying off some debt I ran up a few years ago from seeing docs. I might try it in a couple months if the medication route doesn't help; I'm hoping to have all that debt payed off in a couple months.

Neurotin/gabapentin is used as a treatment for many psych conditions if first-line treatments fail. Most of the medications being used for psych conditions aren't actually psychiatric medications. Most mood stabilizers are anti-epileptics (including gabapentin). The original anti-psychotics were created to be used as anti-histamines. As I mentioned above, the ALS medication riluzole is being looked at as an OCD treatment.

Neurontin UPDATE

I started taking it that Friday which was a couple weeks ago I think. I took 300mg 2wice a day for that weekend but decided to quit taking it after Sunday night due to feeling shaky & I hadn't noticed an effect on my OCD. I realized Tuesday that it had improved my OCD a bit that day & Monday because I wasn't checking forums as much & I was watching 45minute TV eps I download without having to pause to check my email. I had noticed an improvement with various other things as well after I thought about it. I decided to try taking it again Tuesday night when I ate my usual late night snack & took Buspar & I didn't take it when I ate lunch Wensday. I still noticed an improvement & I didn't seem shaky like I did when I 1st started. I decided to try taking it. 2ce a day a couple days latter because I felt like it was wearing off & I started taking it 3x a day Monday. I am a little shakier but not much. The OCD improvement is worth being a little shakier rite now sense I'm not doing a lot of stuff that involves fine motor-skills; I'm not working or anything. I'm thinking about making an appointment with a neurologist about the tremors because other tremor treatments may have an improvement on OCD to. I probably should get off Neurontin when I see one if I do. I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I'm hoping the shakiness will wear off to the point where it was before I started Neurontin.

I think the improvement in my OCD is partly why I haven't been posting here as much lately. I'm not having the urge to check my watched post & the forums like I used to so I'm not doing it as much. I still have urges/compulsions & obsessions but their not as strong or as bad.