Posted by bulldog2 on April 18, 2010, at 13:41:09
In reply to Re: Severe anhedonia » bulldog2, posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 13:17:18
> bulldog,
>
> Do you think it's the effect of the medication or perhaps a placebo effect?I'm not sure which med your talking about.
It's been documented that ssris do lower dopamine and dopamine is linked to the limbic areas of the brain which is associated with basic emotions and pleasure. If you lower dopamine too much it's will have a negative effect on your mood and also your hormones.It's ironic that an ad may cause anhedonia which is one of the prominent features of depression.
To counter the ssri effect you want meds that lower prolactin. ssris raise prolactin which lowers dopamine. So some use dopamine agonists to lower the prolactin. One recently talked about was carbergoline. Some use stimulants to stimulate the release of dopamine. I don't think any of these are placebo effect.
Sometimes I wonder if the maker of prozac knew about the dopamine effect and all the subsequent problems that would cause. If the FDA had known about this I wonder if the ssris would have been approved.
poster:bulldog2
thread:943565
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100416/msgs/943858.html