Posted by sowhysosad on April 6, 2009, at 15:08:47
In reply to Re: Do SSRI's cause dopamine depletion, posted by Alexanderfromdenmark on April 6, 2009, at 3:06:33
> > SSRI's also render D2 dopamine receptors supersensitive, which they think might contribute to the antidepressant effect.
> >
> > That said, so does CBT alone according to some other research, so maybe it's some healing mechanism of the brain as it recovers from depression.
>
>
> Perhaps, depends on the SSRI of course. A drug like prozac has actually been shown to an "atypical" antidepressant in that it also inhibits reuptake of noradrenalin and dopamine.
>
> My own experience with lexapro has been quite catastropic in that it just numbed me up, made me fatigued and apathectic, and has caused me secondary hypogonadism and lowered my thyroid hormone t3. Antidepressant my *ss.
>Pretty much all the SSRI's sensitise D2 receptors from what I've read, or at least fluoxetine, citalopram and paroxetine do:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15820269
As for fluoxetine and noradrenaline/dopamine, you're right in saying it increases levels of those neurotransmitters, at least in the prefrontal cortex. However, it doesn't significantly inhibit reuptake of catecholamines, so it must be doing it through some other mechanism.
poster:sowhysosad
thread:883495
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090129/msgs/889008.html