Posted by Elizabeth on May 17, 2001, at 15:59:08
In reply to Sandhi, Loos, Rog, JahL.. I'm with you too » JahL, posted by SalArmy4me on May 17, 2001, at 1:03:59
> With all the pharmacological alternatives out there for Depression, why must one take Opiates (which are not proven effective by scientific double-blind, placebo-controlled worldwide trials)?
First of all, there are people for whom the standard drugs (many of which work by identical or nearly identical mechanisms) simply do not work, or do not work adequately. This is not common but it does happen and these people are as deserving of compassion effective care as anyone else suffering from a serious illness.
Also, there's ample evidence supporting the efficacy of opioid agonists in depression. See http://balder.prohosting.com/~adhpage/bupe.html and http://www.addict.f2s.com/medarticlemenu.html (all of these articles and letters list references at the end; the first article has a particularly extensive bibliography). In contrast, many of the drugs discussed on this board are completely or relatively experimental (not that I'm objecting to such discussion). The use of opioids for depression or melancholia goes back literally thousands of years. Morphine is one of the few herbal remedies that are actually known to be effective for anything.
Finally, I have seen *nobody* here advocating the use of "street drugs" as antidepressants. This is an accusation that has been tossed around by a number of people who disagree with the use of these drugs as antidepressants. If someone has posted anything recommending "street drugs" please, by all means, repost it or post a link to it.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:63214
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010515/msgs/63367.html