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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by blueberry1 on December 24, 2006, at 18:12:49
This study is informal and 6 years old but sure looked interesting. I mean, of 11 patients who finished the study, 10 of them responded? When was the last time a pharmaceutical medication did that? Scores dropped on average from 27 to 9? That's not too shabby. Look at the doses though. 800mg to 3600mg? 3600mg? Wow. The highest I've heard of up until now is 1800mg. The patients had Parkinsons too, so maybe that is a clue that SAMe will work best in people who have some kind dopamine malfunction? Anyway, I started SAMe yesterday. Hope it goes ok.
1: Mov Disord. 2000 Nov;15(6):1225-9. Links
S-Adenosyl-Methionine improves depression in patients with Parkinson's disease in an open-label clinical trial.Di Rocco A, Rogers JD, Brown R, Werner P, Bottiglieri T.
Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Medical Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY 10003, USA.We report a pilot study of S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) in 13 depressed patients with Parkinson's disease. All patients had been previously treated with other antidepressant agents and had no significant benefit or had intolerable side effects. SAM was administered in doses of 800 to 3600 mg per day for a period of 10 weeks. Eleven patients completed the study, and 10 had at least a 50% improvement on the 17-point Hamilton Depression Scale (HDS). One patient did not improve. Two patients prematurely terminated participation in the study because of increased anxiety. One patient experienced mild nausea, and another two patients developed mild diarrhea, which resolved spontaneously. The mean HDS score before treatment was 27.09 +/- 6.04 (mean +/- standard deviation) and was 9.55 +/- 7.29 after SAM treatment (p < 0.0001). Although uncontrolled and preliminary, this study suggests that SAM is well tolerated and may be a safe and effective alternative to the antidepressant agents currently used in patients with Parkinson's disease.
PMID: 11104210 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Posted by linkadge on December 24, 2006, at 19:55:51
In reply to SAMe Study, posted by blueberry1 on December 24, 2006, at 18:12:49
What is up with the cost of SAMe? Does it still cost this much to make it or is there some stupid scandal keeping the price so high?
Here in canada its like $40 for a bottle of 30 200mg caps. To take the standard 1600mg thats close to $400 a month? WTF. It is supposedly a very good treatment when it works. Why doesn't somebody step in and make it cheaper for ethical reasons ?
Posted by blueberry1 on December 25, 2006, at 6:09:00
In reply to Re: Too darn expensive !!!!, posted by linkadge on December 24, 2006, at 19:55:51
> What is up with the cost of SAMe? Does it still cost this much to make it or is there some stupid scandal keeping the price so high?
>
> Here in canada its like $40 for a bottle of 30 200mg caps. To take the standard 1600mg thats close to $400 a month? WTF. It is supposedly a very good treatment when it works. Why doesn't somebody step in and make it cheaper for ethical reasons ?
>
>
>I agree. Very pricey. I must admit that if SAMe helped me out significantly, I would somehow someway find the ability to pay. Depression is worse than the price of SAMe to me. It seems to me that the inherent characteristics of retail competition would have reduced the cost by now. No such luck.
Why is the cost still so high after all these years? I have no idea.
In the US I bought 60 200mg blister packed enteric coated tabs for $31. The same price is for 30 400mg tabs. They are individually blister packed enteric coated tabs. They must have gold dust sprinkled in them or something.
Posted by Jimmyboy on December 26, 2006, at 8:03:57
In reply to Re: Too darn expensive !!!!, posted by blueberry1 on December 25, 2006, at 6:09:00
I ran acros an article, ( which I can't find anymore) that compared the amount of SAM-e in your nervous system ( not liver or blood)and it said that very little of the SAM-e supplement got through , but a combo of B-vitamins ( B12, B6, folate) TMG and 1 gram of the amino acid methionine raised spinal fluid levels of SAM-e much more .. I think that combo of things would be much cheaper also , so you might want to try that out as an alternative to taking the SAM-e tablets..
JB
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