Posted by linkadge on January 15, 2007, at 20:26:48
In reply to Re: Depressives' sensitivity to stimulants! » linkadge, posted by SLS on January 15, 2007, at 19:37:49
>Doctors don't use amphetamine monotherapy to >treat MDD and BD because it doesn't work.
I'm not so sure about that. Again, if it didn't work, or if conventional antidepressants worked better, you wouldn't see the ratings for certain stimulants superior to antidepressants on pages like www.remedyfind.com (recently changed to something new)
>It tends not to bring one to remission and keep >them there for more than a week or two.
When they were promoted for depression in the past, they must have been effective for more than a week. Some people develop tollerance to their effects for ADHD, some do not. I would suspect that some people can attain an antidepressant effect that lasts longer than for others.
>It is not the best kept secret in psychiatry >that it does. It is not some long-lost piece of >knowledge that the most dedicated of researchers >have neglected to revisit.
Well, in some ways it is being revisited. Psychostimulant augmentation is alluded to in many places, not officially promoted though, just as opiates are not officially promoted for depression. That doesn't mean there isn't a resurgance of interest in their theraputic potential.
When I took ritalin SR, it was a much better antidepressant than any SSRI. While some tollerance developed within a few months I still felt more fuctional, and more like myself than on SSRI's. It was virtually side effect free.
It also helped certain symptoms much more than others. In particular, social withdrawl, anhednonia, apathy, interest, energy etc.
I think that some are interested in stimulants for depression because many antidepressants do precious little to help these symtpoms if not make them worse.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:721931
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070113/msgs/722698.html