Posted by Racer on September 9, 2005, at 13:15:36
In reply to Reserpine for depression, posted by SLS on September 9, 2005, at 8:10:08
I don't know anything about using it for depression -- actually, I don't know anything about using it in humans :^0 -- but I do know that it's got a problem when used in horses:
Reserpine is sometimes used as a long-term sedative in horses, for example when they're being shipped long distances, or recovering from surgery or an injury. It's effective enough, but has one danger: if the horse is chilled or stressed, he can develop a weird kind of pneumonia that has a very bad habit of being quickly fatal. Quickly as in by the time you realize there's something really wrong and the vet gets there, it's often too late to do much of anything. I don't know the mechanisms, and I do know that horses are kinda prone to weird pneumonias due to their size and weight, but that's what's always kept me from using reserpine. I don't know if any such thing would be a problem in people, though.
In horses, because their bodies are large and heavy, their lungs can be stressed fairly easily -- we don't like to see horses lie down too long, for example, because their lungs can't deal with the pressure of all that weight for too many hours. (Horses will doze on their feet, and even sleep that way, but they also have to lie down to get good quality rest. They've evolved to sleep in short bursts, though, because they're prey animals, and sleeping too long or too deeply at any one time puts them at risk from predators.) If they stay down too long, they'll get mechanical pneumonia as fluid builds up in the lungs.
I know that's not what you were asking, but it's the only thing I know about the drug in question. Hope it's at least interesting for you...
poster:Racer
thread:552664
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050909/msgs/552749.html