Posted by Questionmark on June 10, 2003, at 1:03:16
In reply to Anafranil and smoking..., posted by Caleb462 on June 9, 2003, at 21:24:12
> I've read recently that smoking can interfere with the effectiveness of Anafranil.
>
> On further reading.. I found out that smoking induces demethylation, meaning that when taking clomipramine (anafranil), the levels of the clomipramine's metabolite will be higher than usual. Clomipramine's metabolite is a potent norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, where as clomipramine itself is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. So basically, I took this to mean that a smoker will get less of the serotonergic effects of Anafranil and more of the noradrenergic effects - which may not neccesarilly matter in treating depression, but may very well matter in treating OCD - which is what I'm taking it for.
>
> Anyway... anyone have any experiences and/or thoughts on this?That all sounds accurate to me. That sucks if you're a smoker. My empathies.
-?.
poster:Questionmark
thread:232770
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030609/msgs/232810.html