Posted by Pfinstegg on April 5, 2003, at 19:14:34
In reply to Re: cortisol is the source of my problems » worrier, posted by Edgefield on April 5, 2003, at 18:49:44
The two things that I know of that an andocrinologist can do is to prescribe ketanozodole or mefipristone. Ketanozodole is effective, but can be dangerous to your liver. I think mefipristone is much safer. It is also known as RU-485- the abortion drug. It has been given safely (although briefly) for this purpose for a number of years. In order to give it for another use, such as excessive cortisol due to HPA axis dysregulation(i.e. depression), your endocrinologist has to apply directly to Danco Laboratories, and receive permission to obtain the drug from them. It is still under investigation at Stanford and NIH for this use, and doctors in private practice may want to await the results of these studies before using it. If you are interested in mifepristone, you could contact the principle investigators of the studies to get as much information as possible. You might want to join one of the studies, which are not lengthy. Of course, one never knows whether drugs in these studies actually pan out, but mefipristone is the only antidepressant which the FDA has ever fast-tracked, so there is a lot of hope for it for people with depression associated with high 24-hour cortisols. I think it is in Phase 3 now- the last step before approval.
Pfinstegg
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:216253
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030402/msgs/216526.html