Posted by Ame Sans Vie on January 9, 2004, at 10:05:23
First I want to make it very clear that unless I find out that SSRIs invariably cause cancer, stroke, or brain aneurysm, I'm sticking with my Prozac, lol. With that said, there's something that's been bugging me a little bit since early this morning. Obviously there is a reason for the reabsorbtion of neurotransmitters into their originating neurotransmitter after attempting to cross the synapse. I have to wonder then, is it possible that drugs which inhibit the reuptake of serotonin (or dopamine, norepinephrine, whatever) are creating undue stress on our brains which are trying to protect themselves from overload through this reabsorbtion process? I mean, are we forcing more of a certain neurochemical to cross our synapses than our brains can (healthily) handle? This question particularly applies to those who are helped significantly by reuptake inhibiting drugs, of course, as their response to these classes of medications are possibly indicative of a deeper problem than they directly address... i.e. their neurons aren't equipped to handle "normal" (perhaps "adequate" would be a better word) neurotransmission, and so it seems logical that a defense mechanism in the brain would set off, resulting in an increased amount of 5-HT/DA/NE to be "returned to sender" and reabsorbed. If this is in fact the case, I really have to wonder if forcing these chemicals across the synapse is really such a bright idea.
Of course, this is all just conjecture. And I understand that, were any pharmaceutical company to develop a different style of antidepressant, MAOIs excepted, that Paxil, Anafranil, Strattera, Wellbutrin, etc would all be just bad memories for many of us. In other words, I realize that these types of drugs are used for depression today simply because there isn't much else to turn to, and at some point during my lifetime I expect to see the mental illness riddle finally solved completely. But since many of us have to take these drugs in the meantime, I can't help but wonder... are we creating undue stress in our nervous systems?
poster:Ame Sans Vie
thread:298512
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040109/msgs/298512.html