I first took Reglan in 1991, while waiting for my daughter to be placed for
adoption. After three weeks, I got off of it and had severe depression, as
a result. Since I had felt that it did increase my milk production, I
tried to take it on several other occasions, hoping to find something to do
differently which would make it tolerable. Each time, I saw some increase
in production, but ended up too depressed to function and, each time, my
milk production dropped to what it had been before.
We have seen many adoptive moms who have used it, in the past, very few of
whom have not decided to get off of it, due to depression, anxiety, or at
least sedation, which made it difficult for them to function. Some have had
trouble with depression otherwise, and some have not. Most have not stayed
on it very long, and have had the symptoms go away fairly soon after they
stopped taking it. However, the longer one has been taking it, the longer
it tends to take to get rid of the symptoms. One of the most severe cases I
know about was someone who'd never had clinical depression at all before,
but had one heck of a time getting rid of it after many months on Reglan.
It took her a good six months under a psychiatrist's care to make a
significant improvement. The most severe case I know of was someone who had
a history of clinical depression, but no where near as severe as what she
experienced from Reglan. The poor woman ended up spending time in a psych
ward, because she had tried to commit suicide, while other people bottle fed
her baby. She had been on Reglan for months, and had asked her doctor if
the increasing difficulty she was having could have been from it, and was
assured that it wasn't! Not only did this woman not succeed at
breastfeeding her adopted baby, she wished she had never even heard of it!
There have been claims made about how long it should or shouldn't be used.
In 1990, it was being claimed that depression was rare if it was taken for
less than two months. The same source also claimed such things as that some
women could take it for very long periods without depression and then be hit
with it later, and also that, when women stopped taking it, the symptoms
would go away quickly. From what I have seen, none of that is correct.
There are also other concerns about Reglan, and I have heard of at least one
class-action suit against the manufacturers. There is one physician I know
of who has been advising staying on it for no longer than two weeks, to
lessen the chances of side-effects.
Overall, I think it is best to stay away from it, for milk production. It
is SUCH a shame that Americans are more comfortable with it than
domperidone, and that we can't get it here, when the latter is both safer
AND more effective. For those who don't want to try dom, I would try other
things first. It also depends on how much the milk supply needs to be
augmented. I haven't seen anyone who had a huge increase in milk production
from Reglan. In cases where it might make the difference between a baby
getting 100% breastmilk and needing some formula, it might be worth taking a
bit more of a risk of adverse effects than if, like in many adoptive cases,
it increased the amount of breastmilk, but there was still a considerable
amount of formula needed.
I have another thought. Since Reglan has such an immediate response,
perhaps it could be used as the first step in some cases, with other things
being taken on at the same time (herbs, dom, etc.) and then the Reglan
stopped when the other things would be likely to have kicked in. Has anyone
tried that?
Darillyn
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