Posted by Lia Mason on February 24, 2002, at 14:05:05
In reply to Re: downside to sam-e? » Lia Mason, posted by JohnX2 on February 24, 2002, at 1:19:07
Hi,
It took 1200 of sam-e to get an antidepressant response for me. That's higher than the package insert and higher than Richard Brown's book suggests, but.. my dr says that the studies that showed sam-e to be effective in depression actually used 1000-1600 doses.
It is expensive, but... CVS (I live in New England) has Nature Made on sale for 50% off just about once a month. So I stock up. I honestly haven't paid full price since I started taking it. I keep waiting for CVS to get wise, but... they haven't. Lucky me.
No weird dreams and no side effects. People talk about feeling speeded up, but my depression is of the heavy sleepy variety. Nothing speeds me up.
A note on the cost issue... I had a dr tell me that many of his patients do a sam-e combo--with an SSRI or effexor. The idea, i think, is to economize on sam-e and bypass the side effects of the SSRI/effexor by keeping the dose low. I'm about to try this becasue I need an antidepressant boost and effexor works great for me, but too many side effects.
Hope this helps.
Lia
poster:Lia Mason
thread:95244
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020222/msgs/95318.html