Antidepressants

[Marymill]

Hi, I've just been back to see my GP regarding with withdrawal of Ropinirole and the chronic pain I am having, they now think I may have fibromyalgia and wanted to start me on antidepressants, I just wanted to know what is a safe one to take and I know a lot of them make RLS worse. Have said to GP I want to wait until I know best one to take, and she is going to look into it, she mentioned fluoxetine or Loxitane?

Anyone else with fibromyalgia with RLS how do you cope with it and what meds are you taking?

Many thanks

[SueJohnson]

Wellbutrin is the best but can be hard to get, but ask for it. Otherwise trazodone is safe and also helps anxiety and insomnia.

[Marymill in reply to SueJohnson]

are they any good with pain do you know Sue

[Joolsg in reply to Marymill]

No. For fibromyalgia nerve pain, the best treatment is pregabalin or gabapentin and they also help RLS.All GPs are trained to prescribe anti depressants for nerve pain but they all trigger worsening RLS. And most GPs blame everything they don't understand on fibromyalgia.

So try gabapentinoids OR medical cannabis.

I get a lot of very severe nerve pain with MS and the only thing that helps the pain is medical cannabis.

It's expensive though. Works out around £3 a day.

Are you in pain every day? Is the GP aware that pain is present in RLS and withdrawal from Ropinirole can cause it to become severe?

[Marymill in reply to Joolsg]

Hi, yes I have pain every day, one step away from being off Ropinirole, I'm just waiting of prescription for medical canabis to come through, was given the go ahead on Monday. I would love to hope that this pain will go once I'm off this bloody drug. It's trully a living hell and one I've struggled to believe I can deal with any longer, just wanting to go to sleep and never wake, hence the doctor wanting me to go on antidepressants! I have given her the fact sheets on withdrawal, she is trying to understand but they do what they always do and it's not good enough

[Joolsg in reply to Marymill]

Doctors have zero idea of the severe anxiety caused by dopamine agonists withdrawal. If they did, they would NEVER prescribe the poison.Nearly everyone going through it will seriously consider jumping out of the window to end the suffering.

The increased pain is down to withdrawal. The 'depression' is because your brain is withdrawing from the 'feel good/happy' hormone dopamine. Of course that will produce depression. But anti depressants worsen RLS.

If the GP bothers to look at NHS and NICE guidance on RLS, it sets out clearly that anti depressants worsen RLS!

Stay strong. You're nearly there. And it WILL be worth it.

[SueJohnson in reply to Marymill]

As Joolsg says - No

[ziggypiggy in reply to SueJohnson]

Any thoughts on why Wellbutrin is so hard to get in the UK. Pretty safe track record as far as medications go.

[SueJohnson in reply to ziggypiggy]

They generally only allow it to be prescribed for smoking cessation although some have been able to get it for depression. Ridiculous!

[Eryl]

Your depression, RLS and fibromyalgia are linked by the fact that they can all be caused by neuroinflammation. This inflammation is commonly caused by foods in the diet (you can google 'foods that cause inflammation'), and artificial preservatives. It can also sometimes be caused by infections such as yeast infections.

[Marymill in reply to Eryl]

I changed my diet 3 years ago to a low carb diet to help with inflammation for arthritis, it helped a lot

[Eryl in reply to Marymill]

Are you still consuming refined seed oils as those are also inflammatory? I've just found that apart from an intolerance of cows milk which I've known for over 15 years, I'm also intolerant to large amounts of butter which makes a n LCHF diet a bit harder

[Chocolatelover1211]

I just wanted to let you know that I was on Trazodone for sleep. I read that it can make RLS worse so I slowly got off it. The RLS completely went away. It has not come back.

[SueJohnson in reply to Chocolatelover1211]

Just to be clear for others that may read this. For a few people trazodone can make RLS worse as it did for you, but for most it doesn't.

[Chocolatelover1211 in reply to SueJohnson]

That is correct. I did find that most of the information I read said it did not cause RLS. But since it helped me to go off it, I just wanted to let everyone know.