High Doses Sinequan Worried

[Bumblebean]

I am worried about a friend. I know her from having met in the doctor's waiting room a few years ago, and we hit it off well enough that we started going for coffee etc. Getting to the point, she told me the other day that she's been taking 300 mg or more of Sinequan every day for nearly 30 years and that she's tired of it because it doesn't help and she can't get off them. That worries me, but what worries me most is that she is really obviously not well in her physical health. She has all kinds of weird problems, from really bad spells of dizziness that go on sometimes for days, to what seems like a permanent case of flu or a cold. Well, the list goes on and on and I don't want to side track and I need to get to my question - is she at risk of serious or permanent problems because of the medicine? To me it looks as if she already is, but I'm not an expert. Is it dangerous to take a medicine like Sinequan at max dose or more for that many years?

Thanks very much for any information or advice

BB

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Sinequan is an older style trycyclic antidepressant used in the treatment of anxiety and depression. For this medication, 300 mg is not a high dose.

Really, whether the symptoms you observe in her are side-effects of the medication or due to another process is something only her doctor can determine. If she has concerns about the medication, she needs to discuss them with her doctor.

 

[Bumblebean]

Thanks, David. I don't know much about medicines so when I heard 300 mg was the max I figured it was pretty high dose. She has tried to cut back slowly but then ends up going back to 300 mg because it makes her feel so awful. The psychiatrist is trying to help her with that.

Her doctor has her taking vitamins for her immune, and she gets all the flu shots but she still has virtually non-stop flu or something that sure looks like it, and they have tried all kinds of things for her dizzy spells, but nothing has worked yet. She has been to see a neurologist who said she has something called a conduction defect. She said her doctor told her this means signals are getting slowed down in parts of her brain.

Like I said, I don't know much about Sinequan, I'm just worried for my friend who doesn't seem to be getting any kind of real help in figuring out what's causing her problems, let alone making her feel any better.

Thanks

BB