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Today, 24 November 2009

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Question

I have been on Etrafon D® since the birth of my last child 24 years ago. After this birth I was diagnosed with depression in various guises. Every time I try to come off the drug I suffer from terrible symptoms, such as blood in my stools or bad muscle aches. My GP says that I have a particularly tense nervous system. I am concerned about the long term effects of taking this drug, although I only take one at night.

Answer

Etrafon® is a combination drug containing perphenazine and amitriptyline. Perphenazine is a potent antipsychotic and amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant.

Neither have specific long term effects, although all the antipsychotics need to be monitored for the development of side effects if they are used long term.

What I would suggest is that you go back to your doctor and ask if you cannot be changed to a different medication, since unless you have psychotic symptoms it is probably not necessary to be on a combination medication. A lot of new antidepressants have come onto the market in the past 20 years, most of them with fewer adverse effects than the older medications.

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