# Clomipramine (Anafranil) or Imipramine (Tofranil) for Social Anxiety



## BearFan (Mar 22, 2008)

Anyone have success with these (or similar tricyclics)?


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Have you ever read my standard imipramine rant before? Well for the benefit of anyone who hasn't, here's how it goes.

I tried imipramine for 28 days. I had to give up after four weeks because it made it nearly impossible to urinate. I'm talking about standing in the bathroom for 20 minutes and even an atheist start praying for pee, but not a drop will there be. End up giving up and come back later to try again.

You never think about peeing till you can't pee.

Produces the most extraordinary degree of dry mouth possible. I'm talking about a desert that a dental hygienist comments on without knowing I'm on the drug. I could sip a drink and a minute latter it was dry as could be. That might have bothered me more if I wasn't so involved with just trying to pee.

Can cause constipation too, though at least there are ways to deal with that. There are no drugs to make you pee.

When I see all those ads on TV pushing some expensive drug for over-active bladder I think they ought to just take some cheap generic imipramine and problem solved.


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## arth98 (Nov 30, 2009)

all antidepressants can cause urinary problems to some

tricyclic antidepressants can still help with SA but are seldom used now unless the more modern ADs have been tried and failed


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

UltraShy said:


> Have you ever read my standard imipramine rant before? Well for the benefit of anyone who hasn't, here's how it goes.
> 
> I tried imipramine for 28 days. I had to give up after four weeks because it made it nearly impossible to urinate. I'm talking about standing in the bathroom for 20 minutes and even an atheist start praying for pee, but not a drop will there be. End up giving up and come back later to try again.
> 
> ...


Isn't it ironic that a drug that gives you such a dry mouth and therefore I'm assuming the urge to drink alot more fluids, will also cause pretty much the inability to pee. Almost sounds like the set up for a scene in a bad comedy film.


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## Ehsan (Mar 21, 2009)

anfranil+propranolol(10mg)+metoclopramide(5mg) is great for SAD. side effects are tolerable.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

arth98 said:


> all antidepressants can cause urinary problems to some


But imipramine is the only AD that caused this problem for me. Other TCAs I've tried for sleep have caused dry mouth, but I never took them long enough at high enough doses to find if they had an effect on urination. I gave up on amitriptyline & doxepin for sleep as they don't sedate me in the least -- very few drugs sedate me.



arth98 said:


> tricyclic antidepressants can still help with SA but are seldom used now unless the more modern ADs have been tried and failed


Can you cite any studies that support TCA use in SA? I haven't seen much evidence that TCAs works on SA. I see more people posting on SAS about MAOIs than I do talking about TCAs, even though I suspect most doctors would greatly prefer to avoid MAOIs with all their food & drug interactions. TCAs at least won't kill a patient unless they intentionally OD. MOAIs can kill a patient who dares to take a nasal decongestant.


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## Ehsan (Mar 21, 2009)

Guide 4 Dummies said:


> What dose of Anafranil and why did you stop taking it? and why metoclopramide? Its pharmacology looks bad to me.
> 
> Anafranil was superior to all SSRIs/SNRIs. I tried 50 mg Anafranil and it was really helping. I really wanted to try a larger dose but I couldn't tolerate the side effects it was causing. (Anticholinergic and Antihistaminergic)


between 50 and 100.
metoclopramide preferentially blocks presynaptic D2 receptors at low doses and this may describe its effectiveness.
propranolol blocks beta adreneceptors and this together with alpha1 antagonism by clomipramine act as an indirect alpha2 agonist.
i don't care about side effects.


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## patchouli (Aug 25, 2011)

As i have mentioned i've been on anafranil/clomipramine for 27 years. It literally saved my life. It is given a good patient rating on askapatient.com. This in spite of the fact that the people who swear by it still hate its side effects. When I get to the point of not being able to urinate i know i'm on too much and cut back 10-20 mg. (It really helps to have 10mg pills in your arsenal as well as 25s as these pills are next to impossible to split.) 
For dry mouth from whatever drug you need an enzyme replacement bec. saliva contains enzymes that kill caries-causing bacteria. I brush with a mouthful of Biotene mouthwash which gets in there better than their toothpaste. Also drugs w/ anticholinergic side effects such as anafranil and other TCAs can cause acid reflux which as well as scarring your esophagus and making you throw up half of what you eat (I eat everything with tons of very warm water as chaser) gets in your mouth and further decays your teeth.
Anyway, this being a social anxiety website, i do not find relief for that from clomipramine, but xanax (alprazolam) is an absolute godsend in that dept.


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

I Had to stop Tofranil because it was making it very hard to urinate. But it helped alot actually.


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

I love imipramine
I think just the last few days it has started to help
Yes i had trouble pissing for the first couple of weeks but that goes away
It was the only side effect I had 
Dry mouth I never got
I have tried so many medz so i hope this really is the one for me


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## Inshallah (May 11, 2011)

Sex?


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## patchouli (Aug 25, 2011)

Inshallah asks, Sex?
Yeah, that's a big problem. However, when I think back to the first 10+ years that i was on anafranil/clomipramine, beginning at age 38, it had absolutely no negative effects on either my sexual functioning or my libido. None whatsoever. 
If i had to pick an age when i started having sexual function problems, i'd probably pick 50. Well i know that a lot of men maintain their normal sexual function into their '70s and who knows if longer. But i also know that 50 is not a surprisingly young age for a male to start having erectile dysfunction, so who/what do i blame, the drug or my age? 
I found out when i quit anafranil cold turkey, which i did because my bloated stomach, another side effect, suddenly bloated much more, and i thought i had a runaway side effect from the drug and was really scared and stopped it cold. Then i got really, really sick and found out i had an intestinal parasite, Dientamoeba fragilis, that was not a bacterium so didn't respond to antibiotics. But the big news was that, even though my erectile function didn't come back, i was having as many as 4 orgasms daily, frequently less than a minute after beginning to try. My libido was raging. And i was delighted not to be on antidepressants anymore. 
So i had to conclude that anafranil did affect my libido and ability to have an orgasm, but could not be blamed for the erectile dysfunction. After over a month i finally found a doctor who knew his stuff and who put me on Iodoquinol, which cured me of the parasite, usually picked up from breathing dust that has had mouse dropping contact. Once i was no longer so sick, which had given me a reason to stop thinking about my usual daily life and all its problems, i took stock of my life and pretty quickly fell into a hellbent suicidal depression. I got back on the antidepressant and overcame this within a couple of days, and went back to an essentially sexless life.
Viagra did not work for me. It only works for 70%. However, i've only ever tried it while on clomipramine/anafranil, so the jury's still out on that one. My doc was guilty of malpractice anyway because you don't give viagra or a similar drug to anyone with high blood pressure, and she had recently even prescribed to me for that. In case this is news to you, worst possible scenario is complete and permanent blindness.
So I keep trying to lower my dosage so i can at least have the occasional orgasm, but i have to lower it so far that i start getting suicidal below about 85 mg.
Please note that this is ONE PERSON'S STORY. you could take this drug forever and maybe it would only have minimal effect on your libido and function, or you could start it younger than i did and experience anorgasmia right off the bat. 
It's a bummer that a drug that is so good for depression and OCD and anxiety and pain too on higher doses (at least for me) has such side effects. Psychiatrists call it a dirty drug for that reason. But nothing else has worked for my depression, so I wouldn't be here writing this if it weren't for that dirty drug, and the anti-anxiety lifesaver xanax. Salaam/shalom


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

Not only did Tofranil have no side effects regarding sexual issues
it actually countered the Paxil s/e 
I started Paxil and Tofranil at the same time and i can still get it up, still orgasim but i must say i am less interested in sex but that doesn't bother me


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## Hordak (May 5, 2017)

UltraShy said:


> MOAIs can kill a patient who dares to take a nasal decongestant.


 is that also true for Moclobemide?


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## Gillman fan (Sep 24, 2016)

Moclobemide can cause serotonin toxicity, it is just more difficult than with a conventional SSRI.


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## neonknight77 (May 21, 2017)

From the TCA's, I have seen most literature support Elavil (Amitryptaline) since it has been around very long and numerous studies have shown it being very good, even for "LTC's" or long-term come-downs. 

If you do decide to go with TCA's, I would first try Amitryptaline (Elavil) or Imipramine (Tofranil) as these are the parent compounds. If they don't work, then you may want to look in to the daughter compounds such as you mentioned. Both have them. Actually, many TCA's have them.


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## rockyraccoon (Dec 13, 2010)

I have tried clomipramine and I did not like it at all. It gave me really bad insomnia and I was shaking and my anxiety was through the roof. I felt terrible so I stopped it after a few days. However, trimiprimine, (another tricyclic) is something that I am on now. It works great for sleep, better than some anti-psychotics and sleeping pills. It does not do anything for anxiety but like I said I take it for sleep because insomnia is a serious matter with me. It gives me zero side effects.

I also tried another tricyclic which was nortriptyline. I did not experience any side effects on it. I was on it for about a month or so and the reason I discontinued it was because it was not a powerful sedative. Granted it did help me sleep, but nowhere near the power of trimiprimine.


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## Hordak (May 5, 2017)

UltraShy said:


> Can you cite any studies that support TCA use in SA? I haven't seen much evidence that TCAs works on SA.


serotonergic TCAs work on SA.
Being Imipramine and Clomipramine...


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## Hordak (May 5, 2017)

rockyraccoon said:


> I have tried clomipramine and I did not like it at all. It gave me really bad insomnia and I was shaking and my anxiety was through the roof. I felt terrible so I stopped it after a few days.


Maybe you didn't give it enough time?


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## Takenout (Dec 5, 2018)

My brother took it 
And in his experience clomipramine is effective for social anxiety and it is approved for it by the FDA


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