Medication for Depression and moodiness? - 1257492

As a loved one I've found I too can't shake the blues even though the news is good. D is the same too though he isn't interested in taking an antidepressant (when he was weaker, on chemo and other plethora of drugs he tried them but both types caused him to sleep even more). We will need to have someone else chime in on the interactions with Xalkori but I just wanted to say that antidepressant have changed my day to day life for the better, much better.

What I understand about drug treatment for anxiety and depression is antidepression drugs are taken on an ongoing basis while antianxiety drugs are taken as needed. This is a link to mayo clinic choosing the right one.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antidepressants/HQ01069

Here's a link to anti anxiety treatment, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/anxiety/DS01187/DSECTION=treatments-an…

From Grace, http://cancergrace.org/cancer-treatments/tag/depression/

Please don't feel you "should" be happy. All you wonderful Gracers who have cancer do what you can to "hold our nerve" at any given time.

Janine

Here's a podcast Dr. Stephanie Harman did for us that covers a bit on depression, along with cancer-related fatigue:

http://cancergrace.org/cancer-treatments/2012/08/09/dr-harman-depressio…

To my knowledge, there aren't specific anti-depressants that are much better or worse with Tarceva, except St. John's Wort does interact and is preferably avoided to be taken along with Tarceva.

Good luck.

-Dr. West

Other than St. John's Wort, I don't know of any medications for depression that should be avoided.

-Dr. West

There happen to be several relatively easy-to-use, online tools to screen potential drug+drug interactions. They are not completely inclusive nor accurate, so they must be interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, it can sometimes can be helpful to review the information they provide. For example, there is one at:
http://reference.medscape.com/drug-interactionchecker
You can insert crizotinib + etc.
As always, this information is not does replace, nor is it intended to replace, anything that is told by your physician or other healthcare provider.

Hi Lorrie. Here is a link to the full prescribing information for crizotinib (xalkori) from pfizer.

http://labeling.pfizer.com/showlabeling.aspx?id=676

As Dr. West mentioned, the herbal supplement commonly used for depression, St. John's Wort, should not be taken, but I don't see any of the prescribed antidepressants listed, so it looks like you could pretty much take any of them, pending approval from your doc of course.

The thing with antidepressants is that there are so many of them, and there are categories of them, and they can work differently for different people. In order to get depression under control it sometimes takes trying several different drugs and adjusting dosages until it's right for you. Plus you have to take them for about 4 weeks, as prescribed, for them to take full effect. You can't play around with the dose or skip days based upon how you feel. I've never heard of an "as needed" antidepressant.

Also, a mental health professional would be the best one to help you get it right. They have the most experience with that type of drugs.

There are anti-anxiety medications that you can take as needed. You might want to talk to your doctor about exploring some of those, but personally I think you would benefit more by sticking it out with an antidepressant. Just be sure you're communicating with your doctor so the dose and the particular drug that is right for you can be found. Tell them about all your side effects.

Oh, also, they will make you sleepy at first. But as your body gets used to them that will go away. I hope you get it worked out. You're going through so much it is no wonder you have some emotional issues, and I for one applaud you for not being afraid to bring it out in the open on this forum. Good luck.

Debra

I have been on antidepressants for years; a number of different ones; finally got sick and tired of the side effects and am now taking Natrol's 5-htp; tried st johns wort, l-tryptophan and several brands of 5-htp, which is "is a naturally occurring amino acid and chemical precursor as well as a metabolic intermediate in the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin from tryptophan" (wiki) ... i take 50mg a day - low dose and have found all the benefit with none of the side effects. Don't know about drug interactions ...
Above is my opinion only and not medical advice :) wishing the best for you ...

Thanks daisy, I'm going to look into that.