Posted by SLS on April 21, 2010, at 23:30:24
In reply to Re: zoloft doesn't seem to help... » SLS, posted by Bob on April 21, 2010, at 22:16:15
Hi Bob.
> > I look at my tolerance of these medications to be a bad thing. I don't think my brain is likely to respond positively to such changes in drug exposure. My only robust and sustained response to medication was when using a treatment that produced pronounced side effects.
> I'm not sure there is any link between how many side effects one gets and what type of therapeutic effect is achieved.
I imagine you are right. I was really speaking only for myself. I would like nothing better than to respond to a drug without suffering side effects.
> There have been many meds which have seemed to help for awhile but produced many side effects which I could not tolerate. Then there are meds which just produced side effects and possibly made me more depressed.
What are the meds that helped you without producing side effects?
> > I wish I knew how to approach a case such as yours. I find it interesting that people report an increasing sensitivity to the negative effects of antidepressants as a result of previous exposures. Perhaps there is a sensitization (upregulation) of postsynaptic receptors as a result of a precipitous drop in neurotransmitter levels during drug discontinuation. I guess the genes that get turned on to produce this condition remain on. It might take an agent that inhibits second messenger cascades to turn these genes off. Lithium perhaps? I'm reaching. It is almost as if there is a kindling process occurring. Perhaps low dosages of AEDs would help.
> What is an 'AED'... an anti-epileptic?
Yes.
> Which meds in particular would you be referring to,
I hadn't given it much thought. Maybe Tegretol or Trileptal.
> and why do you think they'd be helpful in the application you mention?
I was just thinking out loud - rambling. I find it interesting that the magnitudes of med sensitivity and withdrawal symptoms can increase with repeated drug exposures for some people. Equally interesting is your description of becoming more sensitive to medication after undergoing ECT. It reminds me of kindling, whereby a given effect is triggered by stimuli of progressively decreasing magnitude as the number of occurrences increases; a reduction of threshold. This is a model often used to explain epilepsy and bipolar disorder - especially mania, both of which are responsive to AEDs.
- Scott
The measure of achievement lies not in how high the mountain,
but in how hard the climb.The measure of success lies only in how high one feels he must
climb to get there.
poster:SLS
thread:943917
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100416/msgs/944481.html