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Re: Refractory depression--naltrexone

Posted by Jim on April 19, 1999, at 4:39:41

In reply to Re: Refractory depression--naltrexone, posted by Elizabeth on April 19, 1999, at 2:50:40

Hi Elizabeth,
I don't want to sound like a naltrexone pusher--I'm having enough of a time trying to get it stabilized with me... (I'm apparently as supersensitive to it as to SSRIs, which is a disappointment.) I will say, however, that I have tended to really "enjoy" the effects of prescribed opiates in the past (e.g., I absolutely savored the demerol from my last tooth extraction); this is one of the reasons I was originally interested in buprenex, too. I agree that our symptoms are not totally similar, especially when it comes to food cravings, but I've also had anxiety-panic and definitely social phobia (along with a couple major depressive episodes). Naltrexone duration is supposedly a function of dosage (hence the various dosing schedules), but it seems that its course of antagonism at receptors is not fully understood yet.
Best, Jim

> Hi Jim. I did ask my doctor about ReVia, and he, as well as the consultant who originally recommended the buprenorphine, didn't seem to think it was such a hot idea. I would be interested to find out if anyone has a good idea of how opioid agonist responders fare on the pure antagonists, though.
>
> To anyone who's tried naltrexone, what sort of side effects did it have (and do you happen to know of any other common ones)? Given that I'm probably doomed to polypharmacy, I'd like to keep that sort of thing to a minimum.
>
> Back to Jim - your symptoms sound pretty much dissimilar to mine, which is discouraging. I have pretty much classic episodic melancholia, and panic disorder (which seems pretty easy to treat and as such isn't a big concern for me these days). No significant atypical features except for occasional bouts of social phobia, and as noted, no impulse-related symptoms. (In particular, despite having experimented with drugs and alcohol quite a lot in college, I've never had problems with addiction.) I've had depressions since adolescence (now nearly 23), and they've grown closer together and more severe over time. When depressed I tend to have early-morning insomnia (where I wake up feeling like sh*t), pronounced feelings of self-reproach and guilty ruminations, loss of pleasure, motivation, and interest, fatigue and feelings of being "slowed down," and appetite loss. I've also been battling chronic pain and sleep problems for quite a while.
>
> I was under the impression that naltrexone is rather long-acting, actually, and that q.o.d. dosing suffices for many. I could be thinking of something else, though.


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Jim thread:4588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990501/msgs/5042.html