Posted by HIBA on December 24, 2002, at 23:29:35
In reply to Re: Question about Klonopin » HIBA, posted by Squiggles on December 24, 2002, at 7:20:56
Hello Squiggles,
Happy holidays in advance. Thanks for your advise. But I must think your friend is pretty lucky to get the same effect of an AD even after continuous use without escalating the dosage. No antidepressants retain their efficacy in the long run and tolerance to their mechanisms occurs much more rapidly. Depression heals itself or the person acquires an immunity to resist it naturally and what antidepressants do in the long run is only alleviating those symptoms of psychological dependence, which ADs themselves inflicted.I think this is the truth behind long-term effective antidepressant therapy. Those whose depression is of biological reasons, (as a chemical imbalance in the brain)will usually have to compromise with dose of antidepressants and change the medications in order to get an effect. Once tolerance to an AD occured, it will no longer be effective even after years. This could be particularly true in the case of SSRIs.
The drug you mentioned is not an SSRI but it is an atypical antidepressant in the class of trazodone, or we can say it is a modified version of trazodone. Trazodone's use in male patients is limited, because of the risk of priapism and usually it takes the maximum dose to do any good to a depressed individual. Nefazodone itself is a mild antidepressant, which never came upto the enthusiasm of scientists. It was a very promising agent in pre-marketing clinical trials, but new studies suggest it is only effective in milder forms of depression. If it works well, yor friend is lucky. That's all I can say.
I am not sure whether prozac scientists did really win Nobel prize for their "wonder drug". Viagra scientists won that prize as well deserved. But in Prozac's case I am not that convinced. It could be a fourteen years old story, and I will have refresh my memory. Can you please provide a link ?
Thanks Squiggles, take care and happy holidays once again
HIBA
poster:HIBA
thread:132986
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021223/msgs/133123.html