Re: 5htp not safe (OCD question here)

May 3, 2002

> However, I read that obsessive compulsions mean a person is high in

serotonin;

I don't suppose you remember where you read this, do you? I've never

heard this and I've been trying to get a handle on my son's OCD for

some time. If this were true, I was wondering why the SSRI's work

for OCD. Then it hit me--since they block the absorbtion of the

receptors in the brain, they allow more seretonin to get in to the

brain and " float around " before taking it up. Anybody out there have

some good knowledge in this area? I've been trying TMG because it

supposedly boosts the seretonin. If there's too much in the blood

but not enough in the brain, could this be a bad idea? Besides

SSRI's, what interventions exist that would increase the seretonin in

the brain (not just the blood)?

Laurie

May 3, 2002

Laurie, I am definitely not the expert you are looking for, but I wanted to tell

you where I read that obsessive compulsions mean a person is high in serotonin;

and also, I wanted to tell you a few other things about serotonin. The title of

the short article is Mercury, the Root of Depression, Anger, Anxiety and

I am also in a group called Selective Mutism. These children suffer from

anxiety usually with people they are not comfortable with. However, when my son

became autistic, he became severely anxious all the time. The psychiatrist of

this group, Dr. Shipon-Blum, believes that Prozac is the preferred SSRI

for this group of children, especially since she says this one SSRI helps these

children start to produce their own serotonin. I don't know if this would apply

to other children with other problems. They normally keep these children on

Prozac about a year to lower anxiety while doing cognitive behavioral therapy,

and then they usually wean them off the med. When they go out in public, many

of these children display the symptoms of autism, because of their anxiety.

Also, I just found out recently, these SM children many times have sensory

integration dysfunction, also. When my son had just the selective mutism, he

did not need any meds and was doing very well. He naturally had the " happy

child effect " of his own valition with that huge engaging smile. However, when

he became severely autistic and inhibited at age 12 after the MMR vaccine, we

put him on Prozac, but he had a real weird reaction. We took him off for that

reason.

Going back to the topic of selective mutism, since no one knows the cause of

selective mutism, which is an anxiety disorder, I speculate that it is also

caused by many things like mercury poisoning and other pollutants. As far as I

know, these children (SM) have not been tested for heavy metals, etc. I

mentioned it to them, but they did not want to hear about it. In fact, they got

very upset about it even being mentioned. Their website is

www.selectivemutism.org and the only reason I am mentioning it is that I firmly

believe many of these disorders have commonalities and that many of these

disorders may be caused by the same things. This is my 2 cents' worth. Rose

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