anti-depressants

[Guest guest]

Everything filters through the liver, some drugs being truly toxic, especially if there are already liver issues.. Would sure do my own Internet research on that one, as well as talk with his doctor.. What is okay for one person may not be okay for the next, since we are different Geneotypes and degrees of liver damage, and many on other meds, as well.. Best to you both. Sheena gingertumeric <kswift@...> wrote: Hi All,I have a friend who is quiting smoking and has sunk into a deep depression. He has Hep C, it isn't related to treatment and he has a history of depression. I was wondering if you have any info on good liver friendly anti-depressants.Thanking you in advance

Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.

[Guest guest]

hi Katheryn Well most of us who have depression do take something for it.. I started out on Celexa and then a couple of years ago switched to Lexapro.. I know several others who took Paxil, prozac and others and they have been totally unable to get off of them so they make me a little leary,, but lexapro and celexa have worked great for me and I have never heard of anyone who had any problem when they weaned off of them..not like the paxil and prozac and some of the others.. what the difference is I havent a clue.. but ,, if a person gets depressed while on treatment, most docs give an SSRI ( Selective Seretonin Re-uptake Inhibitor) because the Interferon depletes the brain of seretonin.. but if one is not on treatment, sometimes docs give wellbutrin because that helps with Dopamine instead.. so if he is on tx and the doc tries to give him wellbutrin, it may not work because most likely it would be the seretonin that is depleted and an SSRI would work much

better.. There is no shame in being depressed... and there is no reason not to take an AD if one see's no improvement after trying other things, such as improving ones diet, exercise etc... jaxgingertumeric <kswift@...> wrote: Hi All,I have a friend who is quiting smoking and has sunk into a deep depression. He has Hep C, it isn't related to treatment and he has a history of depression. I was wondering if you have any info on good liver friendly anti-depressants.Thanking

you in advance Jackie

[Guest guest]

Katheryn well somehow I misread your post and since he is quitting smoking and has depression, it could be that the wellbutrin would help him greatly as that is the ingredient in the stop smoking pill known as Zyban...unless he has a seizure disorder, he might be able to safely take it while quitting ,, it could really make a difference in his ability to stop smoking too!gingertumeric <kswift@...> wrote: Hi All,I have a friend who is quiting smoking and has sunk into a deep depression. He has

Hep C, it isn't related to treatment and he has a history of depression. I was wondering if you have any info on good liver friendly anti-depressants.Thanking you in advance Jackie

[Guest guest]

i thought i'd chime in here, as a mental health professional and as someone who has taken anti-depressants.

first of all, recent studies (and i mean within the last few months) have come out suggesting that the newer anti-depressants are in fact only slightly more effective, if at all, than the older ones. (please don't ask me for references. i would have to google it too, just like you. <g>)

secondly, the vast majority of anti-depressants are known to have "sexual side effects", meaning that patients lose their libido (both men and women) or they develop erectile dysfunction (do women get erections? <g>). this disclaimer even appears in the television ads, where at the end the person races through 12,862 words in the last five seconds of the commercial, to touch on all of the major disclaimers for those who might be paying attention. of course, there are a few of course some that don't have these side effects.

thirdly, another recent, major study which was widely reported in the professional literature but also in the mainstream press, i believe, revealed that in fact anti-depressants work only slightly better, if at all, than placebos. this was a huge meta-analysis of all of the studies over two or three decades of all of the drugs and included a critical look at the very data that the pharmaceutical companies used to pursue government approval. it was discovered that big pharma selectively submitted results from their own research as well as misconstrued what was submitted in order to make anti-depressants seem significantly more effective than they actually are (how shocking!).

other research has shown that people with depression (and other "typical" mental health challenges) who use only talk therapy get well and feel better within the same time frames as people who take anti-depressants. six months seems to be the average, no matter what treatment you choose. this would seem to support the (yes, i know that this begs the question: is it possible that everyone would get better within the six months, then, with or without intervention of any kind; it is not within the parameters of this posting for me to muse on that issue, though!)

furthermore, what i have found in my own extensive professional experience is that most people want to take the medications as a way to deal with the PROBLEMS instead of to deal with the SYMPTOMS. some of my clients would see their psychiatrists periodically to pursue the often endless chore of cycling through every known anti-depressant instead of confronting the circumstances or events which lead to their depression in the first place. for the chronically depressed, it could be compared to hiv-ers having to switch meds when the virus develops resistance, because usually whatever anti-depressant the patient is taking stops working after some years and he or she has to try other ones in order to continue to medicate the symptoms. in both my personal and my professional experience, most people would rather take a pill than allow themselves to feel the immense sadness that can result from the

death of someone close to them, or to leave a job that they abhor but which pays extremely well, or to end a relationship that has become much more like habit than any semblance of real intimacy.

that's the american/western way, isn't it, to pop a pill for every little ill? and we don't want to feel our feelings, or take the time required to do so, for whatever reasons (i.e., finances; stigma; family duties if you're a parent/spouse/etc; the list could go on and on and on).

the medications (if and when the work, placebo affect or otherwise) were designed to treat the symptoms, when those symptoms have persisted too long or are particularly debilitating (spelling?), and not to treat the PROBLEMS themselves. and in my personal and professional opinion, that is how they should be used.

anecdotally, i have had clients say that they were life savers, and had others say that they felt numbed out on them, that the medications eliminated the emotional lows but also the emotional highs of life, if you will, and they would rather deal with the lows through other means so that they then could also experience the highs.

i have taken a few of these medications myself. i took paxil about 7-8 years ago for perhaps a year, when a series of events in my life cascaded into disaster (in short, i lost several close friends, my job, my income, my housing, and probably a few other things, all at once - and no, it wasn't due to drugs) and i found myself simply psychologically devastated. i didn't feel like it had much effect on my mood, frankly, or my sex drive and ability to perform in the sack. (i should add here that i stayed at a low dose, at my own insistence.)

then i used trazodone, which is often prescribed as a non-narcotic sleep aid and not as an anti-depressant - even in psychiatric hospitals - and is known to have an extremely low incidence of side effects (despite michael's experience and the experience of others). speaking of side effects, when i was taking sustiva 600 mg at night it felt like my brain forgot to sleep. i think at a regular dose, trazodone did help me sleep another hour or so at night, but in the long-term it wasn't enough (from 4-5 hours to 6-7, and all the time fatigued anyway) and i had to change my sustiva dosing. other than getting a bit more sleep, i didn't note any other effects of the medication: anticipated, side or withdrawal.

i am still taking a very low dose of it each night. as someone who has periodic trouble sleeping regardless of other factors, and who then spent so much time without getting a decent night's sleep because of the sustiva, i am nervous about returning to that scenario. i'm not sure the trazodone is really making any difference at this time or at this dose. it's probably more of a crutch (or placebo effect, if any) at this point, and i have already told my doctor to discontinue the prescription.

having said all that, it is important to note that lots of factors can influence feelings of depression: hiv in itself can be depressing, as can low testosterone (men and women), and so can not sleeping. on top of that, almost every single criteria for a diagnosis of depression can be a symptom of something else, including totally normal sadness and grief.

and i hope that all of this informs the discussion in a positive way. :-)

don

p.s. i personally don't have any beef with someone labels anti-depressants "nasty", if that is what they were in their experience.

[Guest guest]

I have fought with depression ever since I was a teen.

It is a debilitating illness.

I tried cognitive therapy which worked great temporarily. The difficulty is keeping that mindset all the time. This is nearly impossible, at least for me.

I am on an anti-depressant and I have found that the results are fantastic.

Along with cognitive therapy, I have a more balanced approach to life, am productive, and most importantly getting joy out of living.

I still deal with sadness and grief ( my Mom is dying ) but that is vastly different from depression.

L

From: Barrow <pozbod@...>Subject: Re:anti-depressants Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 8:57 PM

"In my case, I would rather deal with problems and work Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy for minor or moderate depression issues. "

There are times when this is clearly the correct pathway, and there are others when not treating depression is to wish hurt and evil onto another human being.

Maybe you should make your choices for yourself, and not judge other people who are in pain?

JB

[Guest guest]

> I was put on Lexapro (10mg a day) and while it takes care of my depression the

side effects (ED and weighht gain) are moe than I want to tollerate. Anybody

haviung luck with any antidepressants that don't interfere with

anti-retrovirals? They tried Wellbutrin 1st and it didnt handle the depression.

Any suggestions?

Pristiq (Effexor's new cousin) at a high dose was helpful for me

without sexual side effects.

Good luck!

Wes