Posted by bleauberry on January 18, 2010, at 18:36:46
In reply to Re: Dysthymia/Anxiety - ECT - Bleauberry, posted by Meltingpot on January 17, 2010, at 16:17:39
I certainly feel your frustration. ECT does look like at least an option to maybe reset things for a new start? I don't think it would much, but anything is possible. For me it actually made meds much more intolerable. I could take 20mg prozac prior to ECT and it was like candy. After ECT I can't even handle 2mg. Weird things can happen in ECT. It is like everything else...try it and see what happens...because we can't predict.
My own theory is that when antidepessants universally fail after longterm use, it has something to do with adaptive changes at receptors. Some of the things that could reverse those include Pindolol, Buspar, Abilify, Milnacipran. Mainly I think we are focusing on the 5ht1a receptor as the guilty one.
Outside of that theory, another commonly overlooked deficiency is endorphins. We concentrate so much on serotonin, NE, and DA, we totally forget about the powerful mood boosters...endorphins. A ton of people at med rating forums have discovered that when prescribed a certain med for pain, with a history of failed antidepressants, Tramadol was like magic on the depression. LDN also has potential.
5ht1a
endorphinsMilnacipran+Pindolol
Milnacipran
Milnacipran+Risperdal
Tramadol
Any SSRI+Pindolol+Buspar
Milnacipran+Abilify
LDN with any of the above no matter whatHopefully there might be some helpful ideas here.
> Hi,
>
> Yes I've tried Nardil about 3 times, each time for about a month. The first time it made me feel really stoned and more relaxed I guess but didn't seem to do much for my mood. Neither did it do much the 2nd and 3rd time. However, it was only after the first time of trying Nardil that the Seroxat seemed to work. I repeated the experiment coming off Seroxat to go back on Nardil to go back on Seroxat in the hope that I could replicate the experience but to no avail. I've even come off all meds for three months (apart from Zyprexa now and again) in the hope that having a drug holiday would help but it doesn't seem to have. I'm back on Seroxat and although I feel better than I did I still feel depressed in a lot of ways. I still have suicidal thoughts.
>
> In my 20s I know that I would have responded to pretty much any antidepressant that was given to me. This time round though it has been so much more difficult. 2 years of trying to no avail to finally to get a response with Seroxat and then that to stop helping as much 2 years later. My fear is that something else has gone wrong further down the line. Trouble is they don't know what that is because they don't really know what causes depression in the first place, or why antidepressants work when they do work.
>
> I was thinking that if I did have ECT then perhaps it might make me more receptive to antidepressants. I really don't know what else to try.
>
> I've tried most medications in most classes, I've tried rTMS, I've tried magnesium injections, high dose vitamin B, St Johns Wort, Folic acid and many others but they don't seem to help at all.
>
> I know lots of people are in the same boat, I'm just getting tired of feeling stuck in the same boat year after year after year. Not really looking forward to anything or feeling enthused by anything. I am able to work and I can still enjoy certain activities but the things I don't enjoy the things I used to enjoy and I don't have half of the energy I used to have. I used to be able to stay up until 3am in the morning. Now I have to get to bed by 10:00pm regardless of what time I get up.
>
> Thanks for always trying to think of something, I do appreciate it.
>
>
> Denise
poster:bleauberry
thread:933625
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100113/msgs/934253.html