Posted by SLS on May 31, 2001, at 8:04:09
In reply to Re: EFFEXOR POOP-OUT ??? Anyone - Bad and Good Stories » SLS, posted by Cam W. on May 30, 2001, at 9:21:02
Hi People.
Although this thread has mutated just a bit, I am still interested for people to respond to the original post.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010522/msgs/64575.html
Thank you.
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Hi Camarooski.> Scott, I've just had a radical thought on antidepressants and the progression from a reactive depression to a chronic depresssion. This is most definitely "thinking out loud", as it just occurred to me while typing the above post. Hopefully you have some comments on this.
>
> There has been some discussion over the years on cold medicines. Decongestants, like pseudoephedrine and phenylpropranolamine, draw body water into the sinuses to get the mucus (snot) moving. Antihistamines, like chlorpheniramine and bromopheniramine, dry out the sinus lining once the mucus has drained. Some scientists have shown that taking these products, which only treat the symptoms of a cold, actually prolong the cold by tricking the body into thinking that cold is clearing. Thus the body doesn't mount as strong of an attack against the virus and the cold lasts longer than it normally would.This is fascinating. The body seems to have its own language. Peptidinese?
> Hey, maybe Grandma was right, and lots of fluids (pee off the bug) and bed rest (let the body heal itself) are the best way to treat a cold.
I have been wonderfully amazed that so much of Grandma's folk medicine has been validated by modern science.
> Let's take this a step further to antidepressants (esp. SSRIs). Could antidepressants cause a reactive depression, which, if not too severe, to change to a chronic depression? My theory being that the artificial increase in serotonin causes the body to slow down natural serotonin production. If left long enough, could this possible decrease in natural serotonin be maintained after the antidepressant is removed, thus setting the person up for a relapse. I have not thought this through, yet, but what do you think?
Right now, my fuzzy logic points me in the direction that this is a possibility. I should think that discontinuation-induced antidepressant refractoriness would be a demonstration of this. Perhaps this might also partially explain SSRI poop-out. I have a tough time buying the dopamine-depletion model.
Someone who at the time used the handle "shellie" submitted a post that's wording implied exactly what you are proposing. He or she suggested that it might be that one can be on an antidepressant for too long, and that this is what is responsible for future treatment-resistance. I told this person that this was a brilliant postulation, but he or she was reluctant to accept the accolades of genius. :-) I kept this idea filed under "intriguing and worth keeping in mind".
I have experienced on several occasions a long-term change in mood and cognition as the result of a short trial of a drug. This is what happened to me last summer. I can't be sure which drug was most responsible, but I suspect Provigil. I had been on the drug for only a week. Here, exposure to a drug yielded a negative change of my unmedicated baseline depression and cognitive impairments. It was pretty heavy-duty.
Now comes the fun part. What are some possible mechanisms by which a drug could produce a long-term change in psychobiological function so as to promote a depressive vulnerability or treatment-resistence?
You first. :-)
> Damn, I hate my overactive brain, sometimes.
Only sometimes? With every wish there comes a curse. You thrive on it. ;-)
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:64575
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/64858.html