Posted by tye on March 28, 2002, at 18:48:25
In reply to What causes med poopout the worst, posted by OldSchool on March 27, 2002, at 21:04:17
> However, I have my own personal beliefs concerning the biggest reason why meds poop out. I believe the SINGLE biggest reason why ADs stop working good is what I dub the "start and stop" phenomenon. When you go on an antidepressant for a while, even for a short period of a few weeks, then stop it, then restart it, it seems like it almost never has the same original "punch" or activation it had in the beginning. one of my psychiatrists once told me that repeatedly starting and stopping the same antidepressant, particularly within a short time frame, was one of the worst things you can do if you are depressed. I agree with him. He told me that doing this, "does things" which makes the meds not work good.
>
> That has been my experience. More than anything else Ive done, starting and stopping a med makes it not work good anymore.
>
> Old SchoolDear O.S.,
I don't think loss of response is secondary to inconsistantly taking antidepressants. I don't think the body builds up tolerance or immunity to antidepressants. I think this idea of tolerance stems from bacteria's ablity to develope resistance to antibiotics. Some people will say like antibiotics, if antidepressants are started and stopped repeatedly, they lose effectiveness because the body is becomes immune.
I don't think brain cells behave like bacteria. I don't believe they acquire resistance to the actions of antidepressants. Probably, like most neurologic disease, it is the brain pathology progressing which causes poop out. For example, levodopa does not poop out in the brains of parkinson's patients. The disease process evolves so eventually levodopa does not work anymore.
Tye
poster:tye
thread:100623
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/100800.html