Posted by sowhysosad on April 26, 2009, at 22:30:20
In reply to Re: Do SSRI's cause dopamine depletion, posted by Alexanderfromdenmark on April 26, 2009, at 17:48:50
> Also I think there's a difference between acute admnistration and long term adminitstration. Fx the brain in reponse to the huge increase in serotonin made say "F*ck man, lets pump out some dopamine to balance things out", so you get an increase dopamine, then you take an SSRI again and the brain again says "F*ck it man, keep that dopamine going, pump it up!", then after a period of weeks or months "The adujustment period", the brain just says"f*ck it, no more, we'll just get used to all that f*ck*ng serotonin and stop pumpting the dopamine" and that's when stuff like SSRI apathy, fatigue and PSSD complications set in.
You could be right. Weirdly though, SSRI's can also increase dopamine through other mechanisms. As I understand it, the dopamine reuptake pump starts to soak up some of that excess serotonin floating around, thus preventing reuptake of dopamine and leaving more in the synapse. Maybe that's how fluoxetine boosts dopamine in some parts of the brain?
After 3+ years on escitalopram followed by a lovely bout of sertraline-induced akathisia, it feels like I've been in a hypodopaminergic state for like 8 months now. All the symptoms seem to bear this out. Other AD's I've taken in the meantime seem to have somehow made it worse. As I mentioned elsewhere, NADH seems to be reversing the effect, thank f***.
poster:sowhysosad
thread:883495
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090129/msgs/892964.html