Posted by adamie on August 10, 2001, at 20:37:24
I wish I had learned about 5HTP before starting effexor which I am on my 3rd day for moderate and often quite severe depression. Taken along with St John's Wort it can supossedly be very effective for depression.here is one of the various things I have read about 5HTP:
7. Has 5-HTP been studied in the treatment of depression?
Yes. In fact, there is excellent documentation that 5-HTP is an effective antidepressant agent. 5-HTP often produces very good results in patients who are unresponsive to standard antidepressant drugs. One of the more impressive studies involved 99 patients described as suffering from "therapy resistant" depression (3). These patients had not responded to any previous therapy including all available antidepressant drugs as well as electro convulsive therapy. These therapy resistant patients received 5-HTP at dosages averaging 200 mg daily but ranging from 50 to 600 mg per day. Complete recovery was seen in 43 of the 99 patients and significant improvement was noted in 8 more. Such significant improvement in patients suffering from long-standing, unresponsive depression is quite impressive prompting the author of another study to state "5-HTP merits a place in the front of the ranks of the antidepressants instead of being used as a last resort. I have never in 20 years used an agent which: (1 was effective so quickly; (2 restored the patients so completely to the persons they had been and their partners had known; [and] (3 was so entirely without side effects" (4).I also read some old archived messages. Such as JohnL's who stated that in shortly after two weeks of 5HTP in combination with St. John's Wort he felt a miracle in his depression but had to stop due to a side effect he couldn't bare.
it seems it could really be a good alternative and I wish I had tried it before trying this effexor. Also for those whom it works for it is supossed to work quickly.
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In their 1988 review of 5-HTP antidepressant studies, Zmilacher and co-writers report that "Out of the 17 reviewed studies... 60.5% of all the patients (342 out of 565) showed a good or very good improvement of their depressive state.... A tendency indicating that L-5-HTP was especially effective in patients with an anxious agitated depressive syndrome was observed.... An important finding is the very rapid onset of action (within 3-5 days) in patients responding to treatment." (24).I am considering stopping the effexor and going with 5HTP and St John's Wort. If something natural can work then that is great. I want to be as much as my normal self as possible. I dont want any changes, numbing effects, and whatever else which anti depressants can do. Oh well. maybe I will still stick with this effexor. I wish the pdoc didn't start me off at such a low dose. 37.5mg. i'm tired of waiting. everyday is painful to wait.
Anyone here have any good experiences with 5HTP or know of someone who has? If the effexor fails I will deffinetly try this next or maybe I will even stop the effexor. I dunno. I just want the best type of improvement I can get without personal changes in me. i want to feel fully how perfect my fiance is. thanks for reading. take care
poster:adamie
thread:74549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010809/msgs/74549.html