Posted by Burnedout on December 6, 2003, at 14:55:13
In reply to Re: Opioids for depression, posted by maxx44 on December 6, 2003, at 1:58:49
My depression is deep and of the melancholia type.
I took an anti-depressant that instead of helping, put me in the ER for 8 hours, with having 3 CT scans, plus all kinds of blood work.
The pain I was having was very real. They filled me up with Toradol and I was still in trouble. Finally, things subsided enough, that I could go home. And the hospital sent me home with a few percoset.
I've had percoset before for pain, but at that time I wasn't depressed.
This time, it was amazing when I took it. Thirty minutes after, I felt like a normal human being--there was no high, no nothing, other than "this is the way I used to feel."
I couldn't believe it. Of course, the affect soon wore off--gone in two - four hours. But it was a definite--yes. Opioids helped the depression.
My therapist suggested a simple answer (which I don't think I go for, but it may be true). Since this affect happens only rarely and usually in people who have tried, unsuccessfully, everthing else, maybe our minds are structured a bit differently.
His answer was that it kind-of-makes-sense.
When you are depressed, you are feeling emotional pain.
When you are hurt physically, you are feeling physical pain.
Pain, is perceived in the brain.Maybe there is something about our brains that doesn't distinguish between physical and emotional pain. That would explain why pain medicine works for us in relieving the "pain" of depression.
Maybe we don't need the serotonin, etc., maybe it's something else.
My psychatrist said he's run into this before, too. But only with the people who have refractory depression.
He said he wished he could prescribe the pain med for depression (I suppose he could) but he'd get into a lot of trouble.
Wouldn't this make an interesting clinical study?
I wonder what an MRI scan would show?All I know for certain was that I was suddenly out of the depression, I wasn't high, I could talk to my family, I could do things in a normal way. It was a miracle. How wonderful it was to be "normal" for those 4 hours.
So, I'll vote "yes" for Opioids as being used to relieve depression in certain cases.
I'm ready to join a clinical study on it. What about you?
poster:Burnedout
thread:952
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031202/msgs/287186.html