Posted by SLS on December 28, 2008, at 7:55:17
In reply to Re: Theraputic med cycing, posted by linkadge on December 27, 2008, at 21:40:25
One of my doctors had a patient that he cycled between Nardil and Parnate with continual success.
Intuitively, one might think of homeostasis as the goal. My guess is that most of the antidepressant drugs are working upstream from the loci in the brain that are the ultimate sources of depressive states. These downstream loci of pathology origin might require that a homeostasis exists within them to function properly. However, the brain is so plastic and capable of having gene activity change, that one cannot guarantee that the cascade of events leading from the upstream drug action to the downstream origin of pathology will remain static.
It would seem that cycling between drugs might be necessary in a minority of otherwise treatment resistant individuals. I am doubtful that this is a productive treatment for the majority, though. I was under the impression that cycling between different antidepressants or pulsing the same antidepressant leads to treatment resistance.
Perhaps cycling drugs will become a more viable alternative once more is understood about the phenomenology of depression so as to be able to choose which drugs to add and subtract at any given point in treatment.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:871100
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081223/msgs/871132.html