Posted by garnet71 on July 1, 2009, at 8:45:25
In reply to Re: Can serotonin reuptake inhibition be countered?, posted by morganpmiller on July 1, 2009, at 2:28:58
Re: zoloft problems
In my experience, it's because hormones and nutrition are not considered in psychiatric treatment; yet they are so important to brain function.
My pronounced negative effects to Zoloft were ignored by the doctors; the doctors I was seeing did not use much besides xxRIs. I felt there was something wrong w/my hormones, went to an endo-got lots of tests and found out I'm hypothyroid, severely deficient in Vit. E (though lots of people in this region have some deficiency), and cortisol tests indicated a problem and the doctor wanted me to get all kind of cortisol tests. I never followed up because I lost my health insurance for 6 months, though I'm going to follow up soon.
I asked the endo if she knew of any hormonal effects caused by xxRIs and she said she knew of nothing. She didn't want to test me for anything (people w/severe anxiety are sometimes considered hypochondriacs, and I admit I am a bit of one sometimes.). There's plenty of research out there that indicates long-term use of some of these meds cause hypothyroidism and low prolactin. ANyone who has been on these seratonin meds long term should be checked for such imbalances if they are having unfavorable reactions, imo.
Despite feeling amotivational and lack of concentration, my mood has been good and stable since about January-when I took the script of vitamin E and started busipirone. Don't know which has changed this, but I have felt no depression a couple weeks after starting those, until just recently when I had a strong emotional expeirence resulting from psychoanalytic therapy.
Perosnally, I'd like to go to a dietician for more nutrient? tests, and go to a psychoneuroendochronologist for further testing, inlcuding prolactin, in addition to taking care of my thyroid problem.
Chronic stress affects your cortisol, and people with PTSD anxiety like me tend to have cortisol issues. Psychotropic meds affect cortisol, I've read positively in some cases, but after having too much cortisol in your system for so long, you can get adrenal burnout, not the medical term endos use..I haven't taken the time to learn enough to be able to explain it, but the bottom line is that hormonal issues are often ignored in psychopharmaceutical management, at least I know this from my personal case.
I noticed most most endos around here specialize in diabetes, and know little about psychoneuroendo dynamics, and maybe my psychiatrists were not trained to look at these issues, or don't read current research. I can't say I have the answers, but this is my experience and I'm glad I recently decided to take charge of researching my health issues.
poster:garnet71
thread:901465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090701/msgs/904172.html