Posted by Eddie Stefurak on July 17, 2000, at 19:38:53
MB, also, medically and possible ethically speaking, monotherapy with stimulants to treat depression may not be such a good idea. Here's why: if a patient is depressed, depending on his or her personality, the moods, worries, fears, and thoughts in general are so scattered and unstable. Sure, a stimulant might take that away for a little while but anyone who has abused stimulants knows that it can very easily send your elation crashing down into irritability and more emotional instability when the drug wears off. Amphetamines increase two main neurotransmiters called norepinephrine and dopamine which create central nervous system stimulation and pleasurable "reward" signal in the brain. This is why most users crave it when they don't have anymore. However, I believe in combo with an SSRI antidepressant in low dosage, a stimulant could be quite beneficial, but in reality, I would imagine that you would be hard pressed to really find someone who actually thinks they are not going to abuse it and/or become somewhat dependent on it when they experience an amphetamine high.
Thanks,,please feel free to write back. I'm new and I'm pre-Medicine at University of Georgia looking to go into psychiatry. This is a great website
poster:Eddie Stefurak
thread:40783
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000717/msgs/40783.html