Posted by bleauberry on July 4, 2010, at 13:07:05
In reply to Why can't we have antidepressants that work (or not) the same day?, posted by zonked on July 2, 2010, at 20:24:54
Because they are not addressing the real problem.
Someone with low serotonin is going to feel a whole lot better within hours or days on lex, zoloft, or prozac. If it isn't low, then it will take weeks or months for some other downstream adaptations to happen. Whether or not that is a good thing is another story.
Other circuits low, ritalin will work fast. If it doesn't, wrong circuits.
And so on.
Cholinergic activity too strong, a TCA should work fast.
Infections. Lyme, lyme-like, candida, others....their normal toxic excretions as well as their dying toxins have a molecular structure similar to our own endorphins, so they have an affinity for our opioid receptors. Effectively blocking our own feelgood chemicals from their destination sites, replacing them with toxinis. With a pain med like vicidin, it has stronger affinity for the opioid receptor than the toxin.. Thus the toxin is displaced. These patients do not normally get high on an opioid, but instead feel "normal" rapidly. Healthy people will instead experience either euphoria or dysphoria, but not normalcy.
When an antidepressant doesn't work fast, it is simply because it is doing the wrong thing for that person, missing the target.
Since it is all guesswork, we don't know what the target is.
Depression is intricately linked with the immune system, cortisol, thyroid, and other hormones. Every drug may have some downstream effect on one or more of these. Not necessarily the kind that shows up in a lab test, but more in the receptor sensitivity/affinity/response spectrum. This kind of depression will respond rapidly to the correct choice of hormone therapy, but slowly to a different drug that has a downstream effect.
And these are purely my views so don't ask me to prove anything. Nothing in psychiatry can be proved.
We spend 99% of our time looking at serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine as the depression guys. That's why antidepressants don't work fast or at all. Because those 3 neurotransmitters are but a small group in a larger crowd of depression causers.
Again, opinions here, for thought or discard.
poster:bleauberry
thread:953026
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100628/msgs/953253.html