Posted by SLS on August 27, 2011, at 5:06:58
In reply to Re: 40% » SLS, posted by zonked on August 26, 2011, at 21:11:25
Hey Zonked!
I am TOTALLY excited that you are improving.
People who experience the placebo effect usually relapse within a month of reporting an improvement. I am 90%-100% sure that what you are experiencing is NOT a placebo effect. You would not see changes in your vegetative symptoms were your response be attributable to the placebo effect.
What does the placebo effect feel like?
I'm not sure because I have never been apt to experience this. None of the blinded clinical trials that I participated in resulted in a placebo response.
Your initial "blip" improvement was also psychobiological and not placebo, in my opinion.
You know for yourself the truth. I know there is no reason for me to convince you. Perhaps others will profit from the information you can provide. It's great that you are reporting so regularly.
I have had some vitamins and supplements make me feel worse. I am no longer interested in this alternative strategy. I am adamant that I not "rock the boat" and subject my brain to a series of unnecessary insults.
Currently:
Nardil 90mg
nortriptyline 150mg
Lamictal 200mg
Abilify 10mg
lithium 300mg
- Scott
> > Hi All.
> >
> > Patience.
> >
> > Apparently, my brain has taken another major step in its process of recovery and healing. I am perhaps 40% improved. It has been a year since I began taking Nardil. I was afraid that I might be "stuck" at 35%.
>
> You've no idea how pleased I am to hear this. Your patience with Nardil in part has made me stick with it through the initial blip. If I hadn't found someone else whose advice and wisdom I trust going through the same thing, I may have thrown them in the trash and demanded buprenorphine or something else rather drastic.
>
> >
> So, what explains this protracted process? I haven't encountered anyone else who has had to wait so long to recover from MDD or BD depression. My doctor feels that this is the product of severity and the length of time spent in the depressive state.
> >
> > Patience.
>
> I think your doctor may be right, and it *may* also be true with me (just a hunch, my MD did not say so) but of course, the length of time you've been dealing with this greatly exceeds my own.
>
> Scott, have you had your testosterone checked? I am assuming you have. You've seen my recent threads, I'm sure - but this does not feel like placebo effect. I have had more energy, drive, appreciating the weather, actually logged into Facebook, etc. - than I have in a long time.
>
> As if I could know what placebo effect "felt" like. :-)
>
> But it appears subclinical low testosterone ("normal" enough for two previous psychiatrists to not prescribe me it) may play a role in my recovery as I have felt better the last two days than the last 60. I don't recall the exact number, but my testosterone was in the low 400s a year ago; I forgot to ask the recent result but it was also "low normal". I am 29.
>
> -z
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.
poster:SLS
thread:994620
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110822/msgs/994976.html