Posted by med_empowered on October 24, 2005, at 9:42:07
In reply to Re: mice raised on prozac grow up depressed » linkadge, posted by SLS on October 24, 2005, at 5:55:18
I cant offer up any links, but I've read some stuff that would seem to indicate we may have a problem here. Apparently, the kinds of brain changes seen in short-term, high-dose SSRI treatment of lab animals is pretty comparable to what you see with similar treatment with high-dose serotonin releasing agents such as Ecstasy (these are the studies that are part of the basis for the "Ecstasy causes brain damage" claim). Anyway, there's apparently some corkscrewing and other stuff that would indicate a chemically-induced pathology that could lead to long-term depression. Its kind of like what you see with the old-school neuroleptics; permanent brain changes caused by the high-level D2 blockade lead to "supersensitivity" and a sort of "kindling" that in turn creates a brain abnormality in which the brain is suddenly super-sensitive to its own dopamine inducing (sometimes) a "toxic psychosis". In those cases, some patients who had previously never been psychotic (say, they were given Triavil for depression or something) become psychotic...it explains the constant dosage increases required in some schizophrenic patients (comparable to what you see with "Prozac poop-out"). I think that, if this proves to describe some human situations, we'll probably see the biggest problems in drugs used in kids--particularly in kids given medication combos (the number of kids on such combos has exploded; childhood bipolar is a hot new diagnosis, and ADHD kids are often treated with a number of medications).
poster:med_empowered
thread:570949
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051024/msgs/571321.html