Posted by Tomatheus on July 15, 2012, at 17:14:58
In reply to Re: What helps with social anhedonia., posted by DK79 on July 15, 2012, at 7:22:54
DK79,
I've never taken Buspar, but I can say that I've had several experiences with supplements in which the supplement produced a favorable initial effect and then pretty much fizzled away to nothing. In some instances, as the case was for me with licorice root and kanna, giving supplements a second try after being off of them for at least several months did not produce any therapeutic benefits. I think that I can only guess as to why these things happen, but there is some thinking that the body may compensate for the presence of a foreign substance (e.g., a drug or supplement) and that sometimes, the changes made to compensate for the presence of a substance may not reverse themselves after the substance is removed.
To respond to your question about whether anything along the lines of Buspar might be worth trying, Buspar's therapeutic benefits are believed to result from its actions as a serotonin 5HT1A partial agonist. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT1A_receptor#Agonists) features a large list of 5HT1A agonists -- a list that includes three atypical antipsychotics that may possess antidepressant properties: Abilify (aripiprazole), Seroquel (quetiapine), and Geodon (ziprasidone). Might these medications help with social inhibition or social anhedonia? Possibly, but they may also have pharmacological properties that might be undesirable as far as social inhibition is concerned. I, for example, like the effect that Abilify has on my psychosis, energy, and hypersomnia (although the effects on the last two symptoms are quite weak at this point), but I don't like the way that my cognition and emotions seem to be blunted on the medication. Another thing worth noting is that it might be expected that if Buspar only worked temporarily that other medications with similar pharmacological properties may also only work temporarily.
This sums up my thoughts on the questions that you posed. I do hope that you can get longer-lasting results from Buspar this time around, and I wish you luck with your trial.
Tomatheus
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Taking Abilify and 6 supplements
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