Posted by BrittPark on October 7, 2002, at 21:48:32
In reply to The Vicodin semi-cure...and workplace depression, posted by Jerrympls on October 7, 2002, at 20:10:20
You've just touched one of my hot buttons. There is good evidence (lots of it pre-MAOI) but some more recent that opioids can be effective ADs. Buprenorphine is a partial opiate agonist and is being used with significant success for TRD at McLean Hospital near Boston. Do some googling and searching of Psycho-Babble to learn about opiods and depression.
I take vicodin 5mg a day (with my psychiatrist's knowledge) and its been very helpful. The only problem is that I have to take vacations from it because I become tolerant after a few months.
One of the travesties of research in Depression therapeutics is the almost complete lack of interest in studying the opiate system as it relates to depression. They have explored serotonin, norepinephrine, and less well, dopamine systems but have done nothing with the opiate system. I'll venture a cultural opinion here. Most Americans think that anything that makes you feel better than normal is somehow wrong. Thus the war on drugs, and thus the lack of basic research into the opiate system.
Gather your evidence and convince your doctor. The biggest help is if you can get hold of a psychiatrist who has used opiates for TRD for your doctor to talk to. There aren't many but there are some.
Feel better,
Britt
P.S. Lookup a company called Pain Therapeutics. They are developing Morphine and Oxycodone combinations with small amounts of naltrexone and have been finding that the combinations are more potent analgesics, and in animal models seem not to cause tolerance.
poster:BrittPark
thread:122705
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021006/msgs/122712.html