Posted by linkadge on December 20, 2008, at 7:45:17
In reply to Re: excersise--, posted by SLS on December 20, 2008, at 7:11:45
>I doubt that melancholic (classic endogenous) >unipolar depression with severe psychomotor >retardation would benefit either.
Well, you could consider my first depressive episode 'classic endogenous'. The first month of exercise was hell since I had never embarked on a steady exercise regime. However, after about 2 weeks I noticed I was sleeping better. Also the only times I would feel hungry was after a good run. After about a month I noticed that I would feel good about 20-40 min into the activity. It was like a light starting to turn on. Admittiedly, the blissed out feeling only lasted about 6 hours afterwards, but it was enough to get me through.
The next episode, I just sat on my behind and popped celexa 20mg. This didn't prevent the weight loss and it made the apathy unbearable. 40mg was worse. Eventaully, I lowered it to 5-10mg which helped, but it was only when I started exercising again that I really had any energy or motivation to do anything. Also, like the first time, the exercise caused a substantial improvement in sleep.
SSRI's don't do much for my depression. TCA's work better but I don't think they're all that safe. Nevertheless, I'd say one of the best combinations I was on was low dose elavil (20mg) plus exercise.
The norepinephrine active drugs seem to greatly increase the mood improvements I get with exercise. Parnate plus exercise was also extremely potent. Lithium however seemed to totally block the exercise induced mood improvement.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:869546
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081214/msgs/869808.html