Posted by MB on June 1, 2003, at 18:57:07
OK, it's obvious that the people on this board are very educated about psych med pharmocodynamics; putative disease etiologies; side effect profiles of various treatments; etc.
In fact, most of the language people use on this board sounds like it's been directly lifted from some scientific journal, which leads me to believe that the posters here are doing *a lot* of in-depth research.Also, it's obvious that most of the peole that have been here for a while are treatment resistent (or treatment intolerant); if they weren't, they probably wouldn't need to stick around very long.
So, I'm wondering if there is a correlation between education about psychopharmacology and treatment resistence. And if there is a correlation, is it causative? And if the correlation is causative, which comes first, the treatment resistence or the education.
I can understand that the person with treatment resistant psychiatric illness would definitely start doing all kinds of research trying to find what options are out there, and how those options might apply to that person's specific illness.
But what if there's a causative relationship, also, in the other direction. For example, after I bought my first PDR, I became much more treatment intolerant. I don't know if this was because I began *looking* for the side effects listed in the book each time I tried a new med, or if it was because, at that time, I was becoming a vetran of the med-go-round.
When I first took Prozac, I couldn't tell that I was taking it, other than the fact that my depression was better. However, I did end up in physical therapy with a stiff neck and headaches. Also, I lost the ability to orgasm. These effects turned out to be due to the Prozac, but for years I lived with these symptoms thinking the Prozac was wonderful, not knowing that the Prozac caused them. Once I started educating myself about SSRIs and their ability to cause headache and dystonia, I decided to get off the Prozac to see if the symptoms got better. They did get better. The last time I took Prozac, and I developed dystonia and headaches, I was unwilling to comply with the treatment, knowing that they were caused by the Prozac. Years ago, "ignorance was bliss": I took the Prozac, learned to live with the dystonia and headaches, and things were relatively O.K.
Sometimes I think that treatment resistance is related to treatment intolerance. When I take a new SSRI and the "same old side effects" appear, I think to myself, "geez, this again? I don't want to live like this! Isn't there something better??" There's an added hopelessness when I *know* that my treatment for depression is the cause of some newly aquired psysical complaint. I think knowing that I'm going to have to live with weight gain, anorgasmia, headaches, fatigue, akathisia, etc. hampers the efficacy of the AD I'm on.
I wish I could go back to the old days when I never made a correlation with the medication and its side effects. I just let the medication work. And as far as the side effects, I simply thought, "I must just be going through a phase or a growth spurt."
Anyway, I'm very pro education. I read articles and the PDR and pharmacology texts and physiology texts. I think It's great to be educated about these drugs and these diseases. But sometimes I wonder if I'd be easier to treat if I was ignorant about the whole ball of wax.
Any thoughts?
MB
poster:MB
thread:230644
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030530/msgs/230644.html