Posted by myco on March 4, 2009, at 16:38:57
In reply to Do SSRI's cause dopamine depletion, posted by Alexanderfromdenmark on March 3, 2009, at 10:46:37
I can't answer them all but I will try some...
You can "replenish", as you say, dopamine by augmenting. Various rx augments exist like DA agonists, antagonists and uptake inhibitors...my preference (if they work well enough) is always 'natural' forms. Try using a natural precursor to dopamine. In order to understand this consider this biochem pathway:
Tyrosine -> L-Dopa -> Dopamine -> Norepinephrine -> Epinephrine
So you want to increase dopamine...how do you do it? Well you "add", via herbs or supplements, something that provides your body with a precursor for dopamine. Based on the synthesis pathway you want to give your body additional tyrosine or L-dopa. I've actually been researching this exact thing lately. I'm augmenting with L-Tyrosine to boost my neuros. I notice at a very low dose (150mg - still to much actually) I first get a slight increase in heart rate, minor flushing....then within minutes comes sleepyness/relaxation (a known dopamine side effect) then later, within an hour, I get energy combined with focus and ideas of all kinds (relates to dopamine and norepinephrine)...I haven't been able to distinguish the epinephrine (adrenaline) effect yet but it may be the irritation I get a few hours later but I dont know. This one works the best if you only take it a day or two then take a break for a day or two and go again. You can also add further up the path with L-dopa (not sure if it's an actual supplement itself or not) by adding something like Mucuna pruriens ("velvet bean"). Has L-Dopa in it (useful in parkinson's) and is claimed to improve depression and increase sexuality from a dopamine perspective. Just remember when adding a supplement like these you want to provide it with it's proper cofactors (vitamins & minerals) that it requires to "get to where it needs to go", so to speak. For example, you want to take Tyrosine with vit B6, vit B12, folic acid, and copper...a simple loaded multivitamin will do the trick (take at same time) and take on an empty stomach as proteins will hinder proper absorbtion and distribution.
Apathy and sleep issues are more disturbances caused by seratonin than dopamine I believe as these two issues are more common on SSRI's and MAOIS than TCA's (don't touch seratonin to much/any extent as far as I know in general).
I wouldn't argue SSRI's exhaust neuro's but i'm not sure...sounds like a recent discussion on the med board somewhere actually.
That's all I 'got' lolmyco
> I'm asking about this because it was discussed in another thread, I'm wondering whether in clever and knowledgeable people here know any real research that proves that long-term SSRI use can deplete dopamine and how it does it.
>
> Also if they do deplete dopamine, how can one replenish it..
>
> And thirdly? Do SSRI medications and all reuptake inhibtors in the long run simply exhaust the brain of neurotransmitters?
poster:myco
thread:883495
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090129/msgs/883776.html