Posted by Steve on July 4, 1999, at 15:31:16
In reply to Re: Pindolol???, posted by Elizabeth on July 3, 1999, at 1:06:38
So if it is an antihypertension agent, does it have the side effects of sluggishness? (i used clonidine for hyperhirosis and it put me to sleep).
> Briefly, its use is to accelerate response to antidepressants. It apparently only works with the serotonergic ones (SSRIs, MAOIs, Effexor, etc.). There's been quite a bit of success with using it for this, but it doesn't seem to potentiate the ADs all that well beyond speeding up the response. Daily dose is around 7.5-15mg, in 3 divided doses.
>
> The way it is thought to work is, when an SSRI or other serotonin-enhancing drug is introduced, you get an initial increase in serotonin, which certain receptors respond to by decreasing serotonergic activity. However, pindolol blocks these compensatory receptors so that there is no check on the amount of serotonin floating around. (Without pindolol, these receptors would become desensitized in a couple weeks by the overload of serotonin and would stop doing their little compensatory thing.)
>
> I'd heard about this a while ago, and it's gratifying to see that it's catching on. Perhaps the next big new antidepressant is actually some drug we're already using for something else, and we just don't even know it. :-) (That's where MAOIs came from, you know!)
poster:Steve
thread:8160
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990628/msgs/8265.html