Posted by stjames on December 24, 2001, at 23:59:41
In reply to Re: CAM: SSRIs and Our Body's Synthesis of Serotonin » IsoM, posted by Cam W. on December 20, 2001, at 15:35:47
> IsoM - I would think that SRIs would force our bodies to produce more serotonin. SRIs block the reuptake of serotonin back into the presynaptic neuron, so the body is unable the reuse the neurotransmitter. The serotonin "trapped" in the gap is, for the most part, metabolized, but the levels of serotonin in the gap are still going to be higher while taking the antidepressant than they would be after the antidepressant is stopped. This would result in the serotonergic withdrawl syndrome that is seen; and the less serotonin the body is producing would result in more severe withdrawl effects.
james here....
If mental illness were simply a lack or too much of something, I would suspect most of us would be cured. To me it is about regulation, stopping the meds means the body must rebalance itself, but not in the sence of making more or less NT.
Neurology is far from simple, so more NT=better/worse is also too simple. The end result
of mood is not a one step process from synaptic gap functions to mood changes. There are many other steps to the end result, mood.AD's seem to act at the gap but I have long felt AD's do not get at the root cause of clinical depression. If they did the sucess rate would be higher. Sometimes you can work out a problem by starting in the middle; AD's do work for many. The sucess of dirty drugs and polypharm seems to indicate, again, that the root cause is missed but by a shotgun approach can knock the system into a better state of functioning.
Or I could reason that there is no one root cause/treatment for clinical depression; those that do well on AD's are a "good fit". Agents that effect different parts of the chain of events resulting in mood are needed to treat
the non-responders and hard to treat.Cam, comments ?
j
poster:stjames
thread:3670
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011222/msgs/87826.html