Posted by nolvas on October 24, 2005, at 5:06:56
In reply to Re: mirapex, posted by baclofen on October 23, 2005, at 17:23:49
I would like to try Picamilon but I guess I'm scared to mess about with Gaba too much. For me and I suppose many people with a panic disorder benzo's work very well and bring back confidence. However they are not a long term solution.
This study was published in 2001Goddard, A. W., et al. Reductions in occipital cortex GABA levels in panic disorder detected with 1h-magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 58(6):556-561, 2001.
There is preclinical evidence and indirect clinical evidence implicating gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the pathophysiology and treatment of human panic disorder. pecifically, deficits in GABA neuronal function have been associated with anxiogenesis, whereas enhancement of GABA function tends to be anxiolytic. Although reported peripheral GABA levels (eg, in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma) have been within reference limits in panic disorder, thus far there has been no direct assessment of brain GABA levels in this disorder. The purpose of the present work was to determine whether cortical GABA levels are abnormally low in patients with panic disorder. Total occipital cortical GABA levels (GABA plus homocarnosine) were assessed in 14 unmedicated patients with panic disorder who did not have major depression and 14 retrospectively age- and sex-matched control subjects using spatially localized (1)H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy. All patients met DSM-IV criteria for a principal current diagnosis of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Patients with panic disorder had a 22% reduction in total occipital cortex GABA concentration (GABA plus homocarnosine) compared with controls. This finding was present in 12 of 14 patient-control pairs and was not solely accounted for by medication history. There were no significant correlations between occipital cortex GABA levels and measures of illness or state anxiety. Panic disorder is associated with reductions in total occipital cortex GABA levels. This abnormality might contribute to the pathophysiology of panic disorder.
Ok so they've discovered in their study that people with panic disorder have 22% reduction in total occipital cortex GABA concentration. It's interesting, but still a small study.So for some reason endogenous GABA levels are lower in people with panic disorder. Now this is hypothetical, probably shows a complete lack of knowledge of the human brain on my part, we know tolerance occurs with many chemicals in the brain as there there feedback mechanisms and other methods by which tolerance can occur.
Here is the question, If Gaba levels or effectiveness are manipulated by exogenous means i.e. drugs/supplements until the brain becomes tolerant, is not the converse true where by drugs could given to deliberately to lower the GABA levels or effectiveness until tolerance occurs, would the body not then try and raise Gaba levels?
I realise this is not something that would tried out for real, just a hypothetical question. There could be a genetic reason behind the low levels of Gaba in panic disorder patients, they might not be able to convert Glutamic acid to GABA as effectively as other people. They might have a problem utilising Vitamin B6 which is essential in this conversion.So as usual there are more questions than answers and I like to tread carefully before playing around with Gaba enhancing substances, but that's me.
poster:nolvas
thread:571213
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050924/msgs/571267.html