From: Linda (joelinda1@home.com)
Date: Sun Aug 20 2000 - 05:01:17 PDT
cdale wrote: << I am puzzled by Jeff's immediate reaction
to zoloft, which sounds like mania. Don't antideps take weeks and weeks
to saturate the brain?>>
Yup, they usually they take around 6 weeks for maximum effect.
It's a bit difficult explain Jeff's immediate reaction (on-line
diagnosis is rather limiting :)). Sometimes it's an 'ideosycratic
response' - an unpredictable side-effect to a drug. Sometimes it's
placebo effect. This is a very real phenomenon, occurs perhaps 30%
of the time with any drug therapy we prescribe, and why all decent
medical trials have to show statistically significant benefit
over placebo.
Most persons will have no clinical benefit with SSRI's in the first
week or two. Often they just experience side-effects (insomnia,
agitation, etc.) This is why Xanax or other sedatives are often
prescribed initially, so that the patient will persist with SSRI
therapy. Most of these initial side-effects will wear off after
a few weeks.
<< Also, your thoughts on welbutrin, which is being used to treat
everything from ADD to depression to smoking cessation. How the heck
does THAT work?...I ask my doctor questions about how meds work,
how I work, but their answers are always murky. >>
The reason you're getting fuzzy answers is because no one really
knows the actual mechanism of action of Wellbutrin (bupropion).
It seems to increase brain levels of serotonin and norepinephrine
but to a milder degree than other antidepressant drugs.
Linda
Grlygrl201@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 8/18/00 5:20:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> joelinda1@home.com writes:
>
> << The SSRI's are actually not more effective in treating
> depression than many of the older antidepressant drugs, but they are
> much safer and have less side-effects. What they all do is restore the
> neurotransmitter balance so that the patient can think and feel as he
> normally would. It restores the mind back to a more normal state of
> functioning, much like exogenous insulin might be required to restore
> a normal state of glucose metabolism in a diabetic. Since we know
> that some patients are prone to recurrent neurotransmitter imbalance
> resulting in frequent depressive symptoms (perhaps you, Eirikur), it
> makes a lot of sense for these persons to remain on SSRI's
> indefinitely.
>
> >>
>
> Was waiting for your input. :-) I am puzzled by Jeff's immediate reaction
> to zoloft, which sounds like mania. Don't antideps take weeks and weeks to
> saturate the brain?
>
> (sorry to discuss you in the third person, jbone)
>
> Also, your thoughts on welbutrin, which is being used to treat everything
> from ADD to depression to smoking cessation. How the heck does THAT work?
> (tried it for a bit for ADD - hated it.) I ask my doctor questions about how
> meds work, how I work, but their answers are always murky. I am beginning to
> think doctors are so hyperaware of liability that they think an explanation
> might come off sounding like a claim or promise. Or maybe they just don't
> know.
>
> GG
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