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Re: Opioids for depression » Anonymous

Posted by Flipsactown on November 17, 2003, at 23:01:52

In reply to Opioids for depression, posted by Anonymous on October 25, 1998, at 21:12:49

I wished that opiods do relieve depression, but in my case, it has not. I have been clinically depressed for 12 years primarily caused by my chronic back pain suffered in a traffic accident. I have been on tylenol/codeine for about 10 years until I finally insisted to be prescribed oxycontin. My GP doctor referred me to a pain doctor who at first would not prescribe oxy to me, I guess partly because of all the bad press. Anyway, he was ok with prescribing oramorph which is generic ms-contin also an opiod. Well I got very sick to my stomach, nausea, vomit, etc., within a couple of days. So the pain doc finally decides to prescribe oxy. I have been on oxy the past 2 years. Although it helps with the chronic pain, it does not act as an antidepressant and could possibly be exacerbating my depression says my pdoc. I am caught between a rock and a hard place. I need oxy for pain and I need several antidepressants for depression. I am currently on prozac, remeron and lamictal. Lamictal was added 7weeks ago and has had a dramatic lifting of my depression. Bottomline, at least in my case, opiods per say, is not an antidepressant.

Flipsactown

> In Peter Kramer's "Listening to Prozac," he states that "for unknown reasons, rare depressed patients even today will respond to no medicine exept opiates, and a few researchers into depression have become newly interested in these substances" (p. 49). I have been taking various antidepressants off and on for several years. Also, from time to time, I acquire hydrocodone through friends, and "self-medicate." A casual observer would think I was "addicted," but the main criteria of addiction are not met in my case: 1) I never actively seek out the drugs; I am never even persistent in asking potential suppliers for them. They just "fall into my lap," so to speak. And I certainly never engage in criminal behavior to get them. 2) Even after a week or so, I don't experience withdrawal symptoms and am able to go back to my normal state rather easily.
>
> My question is this: what research into opioids-as-antidepressants is being done in the field today? Are opioid narcotics ever prescribed for psychiatric reasons? If they're helpful and cause no real problems, then what's wrong with taking them? I read here once that their effects mimic depression, but that doesn't apply in my case; even though they're "depressants," my spirits are often lifted and I even feel more energy sometimes.
>


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poster:Flipsactown thread:952
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031116/msgs/280725.html