This is a different kind of entry, a reaching out for information that could be helpful in understanding a severe problem in a family member. I hope it will be within the mission of FESTwg for me to describe the experience of the past six months and to ask for ideas any or all of you may have that could point us in a more effective direction than those tried so far.
My daughter’s partner, Dan, 50, is a poet, musician, teacher of Spanish and Portugese, translator, writer. He has been on lexapro, with doses as high as 40 mg/day for 12 years. In September, he began to have panic attacks, insomnia, agitation, suicidality, and sharply reduced functioning. The onset came after he sampled a tincture of St John’s Wort, and then became alarmed by a panic reaction and quit the lexapro. Big mistake. With ER visits, hot line calls, and referrals to psychiatrists, he and my daughter so far have been in touch with around 30 psychiatrists. His current doc has put him back on Lexapro at 20 mg and added risperdal. He has occasional better days in which he is able to do some tutoring, but nowhere near his normal functioning. He is currently living with his parents and 2 brothers in Milwaukee, while my daughter has returned to their home in Baltimore. He was in a Shephard Pratt program for less than a week in Baltimore with no benefit (Doctor thought Dan was being histrionic.) He has been in a Rogers Hospital program for treatment of depression in Milwaukee with little benefit. I am doubtful that psychiatry or pharma will provide a solution. With help from Victoria Harrison, I am looking into the Zengar neurofeedback system.
Of course, I know Dan’s history and family pretty well. I don’t see anything that begins to explain this sudden and severe loss of functioning, which leaves me wondering if it is all about brain chemistry.