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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by bulldog2 on September 28, 2010, at 15:50:28
One p-doc(Daniel Amen)wrote an article in the Life Extension magazine where he claims to have identified six types of depression and anxiety. Each has its own needs for drugs and or supplements to treat it. This could explain the low rate of success with ad drugs. Currently we have a one size fits all mentally with ads. For example handing out ssris as the fix for depression. He advocates specialized mris and or catscans to identify the type of mental disease we are dealing with. At this point we can pick the correct drug to treat the type mental illness we are dealing with.
We currently do not have docs with the right tools to diagnose what they are presented with. Without an accurate diagnosis how can we accurately treat. I think once these docs have the tools to accurately diagnose you will see a better success rate.
I'm not saying the drugs we have are good but better use could be made of them. Perhaps better diagnosis will lead to the development of better drugs.
October edition Of LE magazine
Posted by bleauberry on September 28, 2010, at 17:58:42
In reply to One Explnation For The Low Success Rate Of ADs, posted by bulldog2 on September 28, 2010, at 15:50:28
I agree with Life Extension in that there are distinctly different types of depression, and each responds better to different meds.
Some antidepressant studies have found it doesn't matter. Different types of depression all responded to the same med.
But, it is easy to look at the fine details of such studies and see them riddled with flaws and incorrectly interpreted data.
Even if someone couldn't get a brain scan to see what they were dealing with, a simple street version would be to try, one at a time, 5htp, tyrosine, dlpa, gaba, glutamine. Somewhere within those short sample trials the patient would discover what feels better and what doesn't. For example, someone responding quickly to DLPA would probably not be a good candidate for lexapro. DLPA is in the norepinephrine/dopamine/opioid spectrum...barely any effect on serotonin. While 5htp is pure serotonin. More than likely, the patient would find some combination of two or three of those substances in a custom recipe.
Posted by bulldog2 on October 2, 2010, at 14:11:31
In reply to Re: One Explnation For The Low Success Rate Of ADs, posted by bleauberry on September 28, 2010, at 17:58:42
> I agree with Life Extension in that there are distinctly different types of depression, and each responds better to different meds.
>
> Some antidepressant studies have found it doesn't matter. Different types of depression all responded to the same med.
>
> But, it is easy to look at the fine details of such studies and see them riddled with flaws and incorrectly interpreted data.
>
> Even if someone couldn't get a brain scan to see what they were dealing with, a simple street version would be to try, one at a time, 5htp, tyrosine, dlpa, gaba, glutamine. Somewhere within those short sample trials the patient would discover what feels better and what doesn't. For example, someone responding quickly to DLPA would probably not be a good candidate for lexapro. DLPA is in the norepinephrine/dopamine/opioid spectrum...barely any effect on serotonin. While 5htp is pure serotonin. More than likely, the patient would find some combination of two or three of those substances in a custom recipe.Very good post. I think we as patients need to read more and guide our p-docs. I believe mine is open minded and will listen to my suggestions.
I always believed that depression was a broad disease category such as cancer is. Sometimes different cancers might use a combo that has a similar chemo agents but usually each cancer has some unique chemo agents that only that tumor type will respond to.
Scientists at these pharm companies keep looking for a silver bullet that will work on all depressions. I don't believe they will find it. They need to define the subcategories of depression and work on them as a separate disease entity.
Posted by linkadge on October 2, 2010, at 21:18:57
In reply to Re: One Explnation For The Low Success Rate Of ADs, posted by bulldog2 on October 2, 2010, at 14:11:31
The practice of using brain scans to predict responses to meds is still in its infancy.
I don't know of any good trials done which suggest this method is effective. Of course, Dr. Amen suggest it is (and it may be), but he is just one doctor and serves to benefit financially from the promotion of this strategy.
I do believe that there needs to be more research on the individual biological markers of diseased affect.
Linkadge
This is the end of the thread.
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