Posted by zeugma on August 28, 2005, at 5:33:23
In reply to Re: How I feel on high-dose SSRIs, posted by Dave001 on August 27, 2005, at 19:27:09
hi, I suffer from depersonalization, usually conceptualized as an OCD-spectrum disorder, but which has nothing penenomenologically in common with OCD. This study shows that fluoxetine is ineffective for this disorder: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15231553&query_hl=4
The medications that I have found useful for this condition are stimulants, particularly Ritalin. I feel more like I'm 'in my body' on this medication. As a matter of fact I am going to ask my pdoc if I can try a very low amount of Focalin to treat this condition.
Benzodiazepines have a reputation for being helpful for dissociation disorders, and certainly feeling stressed to the point of panic attacks encourages depersonalization. But it's more a matter of a 'loose' connection that I have to my body, and believe the sense of embodiment is dopaminergic in nature.
There is some evidence, too, that disorders traditionally conceptualized as OCD-like, such as skin picking and trillichtromania, are more closely related to dopaminergic dysregulation, which is intuitively sensible, since these are disorders of embodiment.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:544795
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050827/msgs/547499.html