Alternate Treatments for Anxiety
Cautions and Warnings – Stress starts a series of actions that include the release of adrenaline and other neural stimulants. This causes an increase in respiration, pulse, and blood pressure as well as general metabolism. Any medicine which will help alleviate anxiety will have the effect of lowering the pulse, blood pressure and respiration. This decrease helps explain the frequent weight gains when taking anxiety medicine. The taking of more than one anxiety medicine at a time or too much of an anxiety medicine can pose a risk of low blood pressure and pulse. Not only is it essential that these medications be discussed with your physician but they should still be approached with care. When prescribed an anxiety medicine you should consider starting with a partial dose and gradually working your dose upward as you feel comfortable with any side effects. Nearly all medicines can have serious side effects. The risk of a serious side effect may be very low BUT you never know, you could be the one. By starting with a low dose it will give you a chance to determine what side effects or allergic reaction will occur before a larger dose is attempted. If you do develop a symptom and wonder if it is a reported side effect of a certain medicine you can find out at http://www.ehealthme.com/ by using their search engine. Place the name of the medicine first followed by a comma and then the side effect (eg. headache). It will tell you the number of people reporting side effects for that drug and the % that actually reported yoour particular symptom. This data includes the FDA and literature going back to 1977.
This information in this document is NOT to be considered a recommendation of any of the drugs. It is only meant as a starting point in the patient's effort to be informed on anxiety medications other than ssri/snri, benzos and other addictive anxiety medications. Any thought of using any of these drugs should not only be discussed with your doctor but should be closely reviewed for side effects and drug interactions. Drugs.com is a good beginning source for drug interactions. Use there 'interaction checker'. http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html
Please exercise caution when starting any new medication.
Cimetidine – (Tagamet) Increases the absorption of a great many medicines.
Please check your meds to see if they can be taken with Tagamet.
Liver and kidney damage is frequent with use of most of these medicines and patients should insist upon a liver function blood test (LFT) and to have their kidney functions checked at least annually. The liver is a detoxification organ for our body and processes most of the medicines we take.
Glossary:
antagonist – blocks a neuroreceptor
anxiolytic - A drug that relieves anxiety.
anticholenergic - an anti-cholinergic agent that functions by competing with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine for its receptor. Anticholinergics are used to treat spastic disorders of the GI tract, to reduce salivary and bronchial secretions before surgery, or to dilate the pupil.
agonist - a drug that stimulates activity at receptors normally stimulated by naturally occurring substances. The opposite of an antagonist.