Posted by Racer on September 2, 2006, at 1:53:27
In reply to Re: Tomorrow Part 1 » jealibeanz, posted by gardenergirl on September 1, 2006, at 21:32:46
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> I believe whoever coined the term "atypical" did so because they found this subtype to be different from the "usual" or "typical" major depression presentation. Whether "aytypical" holds up over time remains to be seen, because some studies are finding it occurs more frequently than they first thought.Actually, I think it's been known for a very long time that atypical depression is actually more common than the alternative. Or, at least about as common.
It's called "Atypical," because once upon a time, it was thought that the early TCAs would treat ALL depression, so the cases of depression which didn't respond to -- I think it was amitriptyline? Or imipramine? One of the early TCAs, at any rate -- any depression which didn't respond to that drug was considered "atypical." And the atypical depression cases tended to respond to the MAOIs, despite the fact that the received wisdom of the day said that they just weren't all that great for depression. It's a little recursive, huh? MAOIs are good for atypical depression, which is called atypical depression because it responds to MAOIs? Hunh?
At least, that's my fuzzy memory. I know that the bare bones of that explanation are correct, though. And that it's about half of all cases of depression, so not all that atypical.
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> I agree with Racer, who (I think) suggested writing down and prioritizing your symptoms/complaints from most severe or bothersome to least. Be as honest and descriptive as you can.
>Thank you, GG. It means a lot to me to read that.
poster:Racer
thread:681286
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060901/msgs/682209.html