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Re: How high are the chances venlafaxine might work? » Onestone

Posted by Racer on December 18, 2008, at 17:54:34

In reply to How high are the chances venlafaxine might work?, posted by Onestone on December 18, 2008, at 11:45:44

Different drugs with the same mechanism of action work differently for different people -- ie: SSRIs -- so I've come to think that the drug itself is more important than the mechanism of action per se. Also, there's the rational relationship between the various neurotransmitters, which sometimes gets overlooked -- raising one may not be the answer, normalizing the ratio might be.

Venlafaxine is a good drug for a lot of people, and many very good psychopharmacologists look on it as being more reliable and often faster acting than many of the other antidepressants out there. And it does work, and work well, for many people, so I wouldn't focus all that much on other drugs which did not work for you.

As for dopamine, it's not solely about how much dopamine you've got floating around -- it's also about where it is, how sensitive the receptors are, etc. Too much dopamine can often lead to downregulation of the DA receptors, it can lead to catecholamine depletion -- which would leave you miserable AND without sufficient neurochemicals to treat the resulting depression -- etc.

Also, keep in mind that dopamine is a precursor of norepinephrine, as well as being a neurotransmitter in its own right. You may find that a medication which affects NE also boosts your pleasure in life, whether or not that's solely based on its dopaminergic effects.


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081214/msgs/869490.html