Posted by Caedmon on April 29, 2006, at 7:22:53
In reply to Is lithium any good?, posted by Don_Bristol on April 28, 2006, at 19:53:08
>>I've tried many of the antidepressants and so far the best has been Parnate. I am taking 50mg. (Here in the UK we think that is a lot.) >>
Sort of off-topic but what is it with the UK? It's hard to get MAOIs, it's nearly impossible to get benzos. Can you get stimulants? Or maybe I live in the US so I'm too aggressive. <shrug> But my immediate thought was, "Why not increase the Parnate?"
> So guys, QUESTION ONE: what else could he be thinking about using lithium for? Does lithium affect serotonin?>
Li is a commonly-used agent to augment antidepressants in unipolar depression. Well, it's very much studied, I don't know how often it's used in clinical settings. Yes it affects serotonin somewhat and it does some other things that I don't really understand.
> QUESTION TWO Is lithium seen as a good med? All that blood testing seems to make lithium a lot of work. But is it worth it?>
I don't know very much about Li, I know that my pdoc feels it doesn't increase the therapeutic response in unipolar depression very much in most patients, although it's a good choice for bipolar-I.
I would say that it's a decent choice to try with Parnate, if you're not willing to increase the dose. You'd be using smaller doses than is used normally. I don't know how much blood testing is involved in those smaller doses or not, I'm sure someone else who's been on it can tell us. Good luck!
- C
poster:Caedmon
thread:637942
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060429/msgs/638040.html