Posted by sailor on December 10, 2004, at 23:27:52
In reply to Wellbutrin - what's the beef, sir?, posted by Dan Perkins on December 10, 2004, at 14:03:18
Dan--I promise I'm not following you around! Just happened to notice your post on WB after I answered your later one. WB is very intriguing to many of us depressives because of its alleged dopaminergic effect, along with boosting norepinephrine. I tried it 3 times up untila couple years ago, always with the same response:
1) noticeable improvement within a couple of days 2)amazing improvement (felt like it was the perfect AD!) after about a week. 3) Fairly sudden loss of effect--crash and burn by week three, no improvement with increasing dose 4) couldn't make it to week four because depression became worse than when I started.Some posters speculate that WB actually depletes dopamine reserves, after the initial effect of facilitating dopamine synaptic effect. That's a scary thought when you consider that dopamine reserves naturally decline with age anyway.
I used to be considered "gifted" but the more I read about this stuff, the less I really understand. I'm not even sure anymore about the whole catecholamine theory of mood disorders. It only "explains" a subset of the spectrum of disorders, and for those it seems to explain, the proper drug response that is implied by the "explanation" only works for a fraction of the population.
That leaves a lot of guesswork. Does anyone out there share my suspicion that thoughtful analysis of large numbers of "anecdotal reports" may be more valuable than the current "scientific theories" about what's wrong with us and what will help?
Wow, I'm sidetracking! Someone tell me how I can sustain the "day three" experience of my Wellbutrin trials. P docs I've seen haven't a clue about it. Still searching...hope all of us live long enough to see a more complete science of mood and brain function. Regards, Sailor
poster:sailor
thread:427298
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041206/msgs/427552.html