Posted by sweetmarie on September 20, 2001, at 3:43:45
In reply to Re: Med Time-Scales - to Anna and » SalArmy4me, posted by Jane D on September 19, 2001, at 16:59:44
> > There is no evidence to support the assertion that a medicine should take more than 6 weeks to work--if it is going to work at all. The only drug that might take months is Lithium--for smoothing out cycles.
>
> Sal - My understanding is that anyone with a history like Anna's would have been screened out from most med studies. As are the suicidal. As are people with more than one diagnosis. It makes me wonder just how much we can infer from these studies. What do you think? - JaneJane,
I know that your question was directed at Sal, but it`s also my understanding that such research is *normally* carried out on people who are experiencing their second or third depressive episode. Cases like mine which are complicated by Dysthymia (plus other `life` issues, which I won`t go into) and a complex `negative` way of thinking, must surely necessitate an amount of therapy as well as meds. If the brain chemistry is altered, but other `issues` are not tackled, then surely `wellness` cannot be inevitable.
A good friend of mine who is Bipolar, who I met during one of my hospital visits now feels pretty much `well` after 14 years of illness. She tells me that it wasn`t until about 6 months after her last discharge that she began having more good days than bad. She now feels in a position to have counselling, but those months after discharge she had to cope with a lot of stuff, not least her son being put into care.
Re. the professor treating me - he told me that with some sufferers become well in a dramatic way `overnight`, whereas others see a gradual improvement over months. He has been treating chronic `resistant` sufferers for over 10 years, and must therefore be basing this assertion on experience.
I`ve never previouly subscribed to the medication is only effective with some kind of therapy idea, but it really does make sense to me now. Mandi (above mentioned friend) has always told me that it`s 50% meds and 50% effort. I was always sceptical, but I`ve seen the way that she`s turned her life around, and I`m convinced.
Then there`s the time that I was taking Seroxat - I think I started it in the August of 1994, and by about March 1995, I was seeing a lot more `good` days than `bad`. By the July, I was having only the occasional bad day, so much so that I stopped taking it (stupid in retrospect), and by September I had totally crashed. This suggests to me that the medication WAS working effectively, and I would not have experienced such good results if I had discontinued it after 3 months or so (which I had previously done before). Others that I have spoken to have had similar experiences.
This is just conjecture, but it seems to me to be possible that with continued use of different medications of different types over a long period, the brain`s chemicals will be out of kilter to an extent. So there`s that to sort out. This is not based on anything I`ve read or been told, just kind of makes sense to me.
Anna.
poster:sweetmarie
thread:79075
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010917/msgs/79135.html