Posted by Steve on April 14, 1999, at 3:29:09
In reply to Re: Refractory depression--naltrexone theories?, posted by Jim on April 12, 1999, at 19:02:34
The brain cleaves its opiates out of one big
peptide called ACTH, which is undersecreted in
some forms of depression. It is conceivable that
by blocking the mu opiate receptor you can trick
the brain into churning out more ACTH, and therefore
more opiates which do elevate mood.> Wayne,
> On your questions about who naltrexone
> works for and why, I too am just an
> interested (perhaps too interested!)
> patient. I agree that most reports
> (especially Lee Dante's) see it working
> only as an augmentation strategy with
> things like SSRIs (and also sometimes
> tricyclics). But when I did some of my own
> research on naltrexone use across
> the board, I did find a bunch of places
> in the alcholism & autism literature where
> there was some question about whether it
> might have an antidepressant effect in its
> own right. This has not really been
> formally researched so you're right to see
> naltrexone as remaining basically an
> augmentation strategy for the time being.
> (My *theory* that I posted was basically
> the best one that I as a non-specialist could
> come up with!) If there are other people
> that naltrexone has helped, I'd be interested
> to see them come out of the woodwork too!
> -Jim
poster:Steve
thread:4588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990501/msgs/4852.html