Posted by BrittPark on October 1, 2002, at 18:18:24
In reply to Re: Opioids and Depression, posted by Nala on October 1, 2002, at 16:08:05
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sorry you haven't had much luck with other treatments. Try to find an open minded psychiatrist and ask him to look into buprenorphine (a partial opiate agonist) as a treatment for depression. There has been some research done and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of its efficacy for TRD right here on PB.
I have some further questions. What dose of Lortab have you taken? Did you become tolerant to the AD effect? Did you have to escalate dosage? How long did you take it? (Nosy, ain't I).
I agree with you entirely that psychiatrists, both clinicians and researchers, should be looking into opiate pathways as treatment for depression. There are a few who are doing so, but not nearly enough. There is some hope coming down the pipeline. Look up on the web for a company called Pain Therapeutics. They are in stage two trials with two opiate formulations. One is a combination of morphine and a miniscule amount of naltrexone. The other is oxycodone with a miniscule amount of naltrexone. The research of the company founders has demonstrated that the addition of a small amount of a strong opiate antagonist, naltrexone, to a full agonist not only provides better anelgesia but seems to prevent tolerance developing. The question of course is do these combination drugs retain their mood enhancing effects. I've sent an inquiry to the company, but have received no reply. They probably think I'm a crank.
Feel better,
Britt
poster:BrittPark
thread:120871
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020930/msgs/121866.html