Posted by jay on December 12, 2004, at 13:04:05
In reply to Alcohol binges = serotonin or dopamine, posted by cache-monkey on December 11, 2004, at 0:45:06
Hi....from my discussion with a psychopharm researcher at McMaster here in Canada, it seems three chemicals are out of whack in alcohol craving: serotonin, gaba, and dopamine. The idea is not to get one to dominate the other, but to get all three in fine tune and harmony. This may be done with a combo of meds, say an SSRI like Prozac, a TCA like Nortriptyline, plus a benzo and possibly Neurontin.
It seems in most cases of depression, the more chemicals you muck around with, the better. This may be why TCA are often better for people with long term depression than an SSRI.
To sum it up, though, to say one chemical causes "this" or "that" seems very, very unlikely.
Just my take,
Jay
poster:jay
thread:427605
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041211/msgs/428294.html