Posted by med_empowered on August 1, 2005, at 2:57:32
In reply to Re: why can't we mimic sleep deprivation, posted by barosky on August 1, 2005, at 2:26:57
hey! I've always found sleep deprivation to lift my mood--but, since I have occasional (hypo)manic and "mixed" episodes, it can be a mixed bag. That said...it works SO WELL. A day, even two without sleep makes me more productive, happier, more talkative, so on and so forth. I've read a couple studies where they use sleep deprivation very carefully in conjunction with antidepressants to get a more robust repsonse...still, having both taken antidepressants AND experienced the ups and downs of lack of sleep, I kind of think most of the "reponse" in those studies was to the sleep deprivation, not the medication. As for finding a way to mimic sleep deprivation..its a great idea, but its so *complex*--sleep affects everything, from metabolism to neurotransmitter activity...I cant imagine what kind of pharmaceutical (or cocktail of pharmaceuticals) could mimic going without sleep and do it in such a way that taking the med(s) would be safer and cost-effective as compared to standard sleep-deprivation. Still..it'd be a nice avenue of research, and any resulting products would certainly beat taking sedating, dulling meds that currently dominate the marketplace.
poster:med_empowered
thread:536266
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050728/msgs/536281.html