Posted by Elizabeth on November 19, 2001, at 13:13:29
In reply to Re: Morphine for depression., posted by paxvox on November 17, 2001, at 19:45:29
> OK, I'm dropping into this discussion late, though I have made other posts RE:opiates as mood stabilizers. I have had that effect from opiates. As opposed to the "normal" sedative effects, I actually get a rather smooth lift in mood. I guess one would suggest that is why some people become heroin addicts, though I see that as a more complex issue.
Addicts get f---ed up on heroin -- nodding, general indifference to just about everything, etc. It's usually sedating, if anything.
For me, opioids are stimulating. They don't make me feel indifferent at all; instead they *increase* the range of emotions that I can experience. I don't think that the antidepressant effects I get are the same thing people are experiencing when they get high on opioids (having had the opportunity to observe a few people in the "high" state < g >).
BTW, some of the literature suggests that they do have both AD and mood-stabilizing effects.
> However, I do not know of any main-stream Pdocs that would be handing out scripts for schedule II narcotics as pyschotherapeutic meds.
Buprenorphine isn't C-II, FWIW -- as a partial agonist, it's only C-V. But there certainly are plenty of doctors who have prescribed morphine, oxycodone, etc. as antidepressants for certain patients. Before amphetamine was discovered, opium was the *only* antidepressant.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:84007
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011113/msgs/84664.html