Posted by Racer on May 27, 2007, at 15:34:15
In reply to Brain scans and antidepressants, posted by Denise190466 on May 27, 2007, at 14:56:53
Yes, and no. That sort of study requires more than just giving a drug and doing a scan. It has been done more often, as far as I know, in anti-psychotics than anti-depressants, but I'm sure someone out there has tried it with ADs.
There are a few pdocs out there who are using scans to predict responses to various ADs, but I'm not sure it's worth the cost. They're basing it on correlations -- "Out of 8000 scans I've seen, the ones which most closely resemble yours have belonged to people who responded well to Drug X, therefore I'll give you Drug X." There are, as yet, no studies showing anything more concrete.
Sad to say, there's not much out there beyond trial and error. As for why something used to work better than it does now, there are a lot of other factors that could be looked into:
1. Age related biochemical changes. Especially in women entering middle age, those would be pretty influential. (I say that as a woman firmly into her middle years.)
2. Weight changes. As most of us are aware, many drugs out there affect weight. If you've gained weight, your body's chemistry is changing a bit, AND many drugs do have a mg/kg ratio they like to stay in. Additionally, metabolic changes associated with weight fluctuations can affect the way your body processes a medication.
3. Life changes. It's easy to overlook this part, but basic life changes make a difference, too. When I was in my 20s, ADs made a hell of a difference for me -- I felt as though they opened up a lot of hope that hadn't been there. Now, though, a lot of that hope is just plain gone. I no longer have unlimited potential -- I'm a middle aged woman, and there's not a lot that I can do to affect meaningful changes to my life. (I'm not saying I can't take steps to improve my life. I'm only saying that I don't have all the options I had in my 20s.) That change alone is enough to dampen my subjective response to ADs.
Those are just what came to mind off hand. I'm sure there are more that I didn't think of.
Hope that helps.
poster:Racer
thread:759825
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070524/msgs/759841.html