Posted by davpet on January 17, 2007, at 12:06:25
I am an anti-depressant non-responder . The consensus amongst the medical community is that depression is caused by a lack of the monamines (serotonin;dopamine;norepinephrine) and thus nearly all anti-depressants work in one way or another by increasing the amount of neurtransmitters circulating in your brain . But has anyone considered that depression may be caused by high levels of neutransmitters not low . Let me explain as i'm sure some of you know neurotransmitter receptors work on a system of down-regulation and up-regulation . The more you expose a receptor to its respective neurotransmitter the more it desensitises (down-regulates) thus more neutransmitter is required to get the same amount of activation out the receptor . For example drugs and and binge eating flood your brain with neutransmitters - you feel good for awhile and then crash . Over time this constant flooding desensitises your receptors and now your normal neutransmitters levels are not enough to activate their receptors . It is this deficit that equals depression . So what do you do , you go to a P/doc and what do they say - you don't have enough serotonin etc. and they give you an SSRI. Which floods your brain once again with serotonin which causes further down-regulation worsening the problem.
poster:davpet
thread:723210
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070113/msgs/723210.html