Posted by Michael Bell on February 16, 2005, at 21:28:07
In reply to Re: Social Anxiety HELP-Michael, posted by sabre on February 16, 2005, at 3:19:58
Sabre, it's a difficult topic to nail down, especially in light of the fact that many people have more than one disorder. But as far as generalized social phobia is concerned, I don't think the cause is very complex (relatively speaking, of course). I don't think there are multiple problems with multiple neurotransmitters, subreceptors and hormones all going on at the same time and adding together to give a large percentage of the population such similar symptoms. Rather, I think there is a major disfunction of one or two transmitter/hormone systems that throws the whole equilibrium off. This is NOT to say that there's a one pill solution to the problem.
Now, I could go on and on about the role of GABA in anxiety, serotonin, CCK-B and fear response, dopamine receptor binding, etc., but it would take pages. The bottom line for me is this - for the majority of social phobia sufferers, the most effect meds tend to be, in no particular order: GHB, Benzos, Nardil and alcohol. So although these are vastly different meds with a variety of effects, there is a similar mechanism of action between all of them that is for some reason extremely effective for social anxiety. That's where the the ball starts rolling for me...
> Hi Michael
> Thanks for the list! It is great when posters provide a summary of the theory or drugs.
>
> Do you think that all social phobics have the same biochemical cause for their problems? You read SSRI studies that proclaim that SA can be treated 'safely and effectively' and yet many are driven up the wall with anxiety using them. Some believe Moclobemide in high doses is great others find it useless and others hate it... It goes on and on.
>
> Do social phobes fit into discrete subtypes (I just don't mean generalised or specific) or is there just a huge spectrum filled with people who have varied glitches associated with their neurotransmitters, receptors, enzymes etc and who have huge variations in dosage tolerances. Perhaps there are no two social phobes that are alike, eg St Johns Wort did nothing for me while Tyrosine, has helped the panic associated with SA. SSRIs..Paxil, Lexapro and Tryptophan got a big fat zero.
> I would add Beta blockers to the list. They are certainly better than nothing. They do little for the mental symptoms but by controlling the physical side of anxiety, they often enable you to pretend that you are ok and to survive.
>
> I just get the feeling you can be damned lucky to find one of these drugs that work and for many of the sufferers that haunt these pages it is just a long torturous experiment.
>
> sabre
poster:Michael Bell
thread:457784
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050212/msgs/459046.html