Posted by Pfinstegg on May 7, 2006, at 0:17:44
In reply to Re: Do you know tianeptine?, posted by psychobot5000 on May 6, 2006, at 14:06:39
I like tianeptine a lot. I haven't had a single side effect that I'm aware of in a year and a half of taking it.. For me, it's a moderate anti-depressant, but a very good mood-stabilizer. It also helps a lot in reducing anxiety.
It's a little scary taking it, because it's not marketed in the US, and the pdocs don't know about it. From what I've been able to learn on-line, in addition to enhancing serotonin uptake, it acts to block the cortisol stress cascade, not where it begins in the hypothalamus, but where it ends at the cellular level where cortisol harms neurons in the hippocampus (and elsewhere).
The single most impressive thing I learned about it (from a study at the German Primate Center) was that it blocks the harmful effects of separating baby tree shrews from their mothers. If the little newborns are separated from their mothers for three hours in the first day of life, they will do very poorly as adults on the Forced Swim test as adults- the standard animal model of depression. But, if they are given tianeptine before being separated, they do just as well on that test as the control babies who were never separated. This seems to be additional evidence that the harmful effects of stress are somehow prevented.
Almost every neurobiology researcher here in the states who mentions it says favorable things about tianeptine. I am assuming that it's not marketed here because, having been used for over ten years in Europe, there is no patent to be acquired, and not much money to be made by any drug company.
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:638142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060504/msgs/640835.html