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My experience of taking medications and some side effects and notes about Vortioxetine (Brintellix, Trintellix, Fonksera), Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and Olanzapine (Ferzapine)

Published Jan 13, 2025 by Zhymabek Roman

Danger

Everyone is different! You may have different drug interaction, so please do not take my own experience seriously. In order to compensate this I would add my personal findings, with sources, so you would able to critically analyze results and make some conclusions by yourself. Be safe.

My life mess in few sentences

Before starting, I would say that I had a rough childhood and adulthood. I was a very shy person, actually. I didn't have friends, not even neighborhood friends with whom I would be able to have some fun time.

So it continued in school, where I was abused by my classmates, had a very rough relationship with teachers, and overall had a very bad experience studying. After moving to a different school, I became more self-aware. I was very passionate about studying and always tried to push myself to my boundaries. By the way, about boundaries, these were influenced by my father. Besides that, something was hard to accomplish: communication. Thinking from my current perspective, I now believe it was more just anxiety.

And that continued until the third year of college. At that time, one girl wanted to see me as a boyfriend; in other words, she liked me. I tried to be a romantic partner, but I wasn't able to be. I were on the verge of giving up on my life. We might have been more in platonic relationship. Of course, after three years, she dumped me and gave me a compliment - I think a bad compliment that I'm not stable. That's the reason why she doesn't want to be with me.

So I started really working on myself. First was my mental health. I got an appointment with my psychiatrist, who prescribed my first medication - the antidepressant Brintellix.

So I'm here, where we're going to talk about my journey.

Personal experience

I'm (21M) taking 20mg of Brintellix since the beginning of my treatment. This is my first medication for my mixed chronic anxiety-depressive disorder (MADD), which has been present throughout my conscious life. I'm now in approximately the third month of treatment. Apart from some initial nausea during the first few days and drowsiness in the first hour after taking the medication, I've been feeling generally stable and fine. My social anxiety has decreased, and I've become more able to interact with people without excessive overthinking. The only issue I'm experiencing is difficulty concentrating on tasks at work. As a programmer, concentration is crucial for my professional performance.

After discussing my concentration problems with my psychiatrist, she prescribed Lamictal as an additional therapy to be taken alongside Brintellix.

(add about grapefruit Brintellix overdosing)

(add about finding that taking grapefruit alongside anti-bipolar medication can reduce effect of medication)

(Folic acid can decreased when taking lamictal, that mentioned in pregnancy warning. Also mention that lamictal initially was designed to inhibit folic acid. Buttt, folic acid defficency could cause depression, Veru interesting)

Antidepressants (SSRI, SNRI, multimodal)

(about info that antidepressant may increase suicidal thoughts)

Vortioxetine (Brintellix, Trintellix, Fonksera)

Multimodal antidepressant, that

Why there is so many names? Is that generic of the medication?

Vortioxetine was previously sold under the brand name Brintellix in the United States, but in May 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a name change to Trintellix in order to avoid confusion with the blood-thinning medication Brilinta (ticagrelor). Other brand names include Torvox, Vantaxa, Voxigain, and Trivoxetin. In Europe, the name was changed from Brintellix to Fonksera, so vortioxetine can be called Brintellix, Trintellix, and Fonksera, depending on where you are1.

About generic around thing... This is going to be drama

...

Benefits

  • Effectiveness in Anxiety-Depression Comorbidity: Research indicates that vortioxetine can be effective for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who also experience high levels of anxiety. In a clinical trial, patients treated with vortioxetine showed significant improvements in both depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to those receiving other treatments like escitalopram or desvenlafaxine23.

Risks, Side effects

  • Potential Risks for Standalone Anxiety Disorders: While vortioxetine may benefit those with anxiety and depression, its strong affinity for NAT might exacerbate symptoms in individuals suffering from standalone anxiety disorders or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). This is particularly relevant for patients with low levels of SERT, NAT, and DAT, where the modulation of norepinephrine could potentially worsen anxiety symptoms43.

  • PSSD - Post-SSRI sexual disorder: maybe common adverse effect of antidepressants.

Overdose

Vortioxetine is metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes5. Consuming enzyme-inhibiting medications or foods like Curcumin, Ginger, and grapefruit, may significantly increase medication dosage67.

Olanzapine (brand name - Zyprexa)

  • Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic that may be used to treat adults and adolescents aged 13 and older with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder. For bipolar I disorder, it may be used:

  • alone for manic or mixed episodes, or in combination with lithium or valproate

  • with fluoxetine for depressive episodes in people aged 10 and older8

  • Olanzapine is marketed in a fixed-dose combination with fluoxetine as olanzapine/fluoxetine (Symbyax), which was approved by the US FDA for the treatment of depressive episodes of bipolar I disorder in 2003 and for treatment-resistant depression in 2009910.

Grapefruit and SSRI interaction

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  1. https://www.israelpharm.com/blog/what-kind-of-antidepressant-is-trintellix/ ↩

  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9889909/ ↩

  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8710584/ ↩↩

  4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39313879/ ↩

  5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29189941/ ↩

  6. See 'Grapefruit and SSRI interaction' section ↩

  7. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cns-spectrums/article/poor-mans-vortioxetine/300A58531C94D15C6B6474A852656FAD ↩

  8. See lithium as mood stabilizer ↩

  9. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=6b28c424-0b7e-4b75-b090-f116b113554e ↩

  10. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olanzapine ↩

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