Posted by SLS on August 13, 2008, at 7:07:52
In reply to meds and belief systems, posted by elanor roosevelt on August 13, 2008, at 0:14:50
> for those of us who have been on meds for a many years--we must remember that when we started, the theory was that ADs would stabilize our brain chemistry and allow us long breaks from the meds
>
> i do think that most of the members of this board believe or at least hope meds will help them get "better"I hope so. Sometimes, I have my doubts.
Psycho-Babble probably contains a greater percentage of people deemed to have treatment resistant depression (TRD) than the general population of people suffering from an affective disorder. Many of these TRD people have performed numerous failed drug trials with attendant untoward side effects.
I think some people grow to become skeptical and cynical regarding the usage of antidepressants. People develop true anger at, and hatred of, these drugs. I can certainly empathize with people placed in this position. Thankfully, "treatment resistant" is not equivalent to "treatment refractory". Interestingly, every investigational group has their own definition of TRD. Is someone TRD if, after trying 10 individual drugs sequentially, goes on to respond to the 11th? What about combination drug treatments? The number of possible psychotropic combinations is in the thousands. If this is not reason enough to instill hope, one might consider that there are several novel drugs close to being submitted for FDA approval:
http://www.neurotransmitter.net/newdrugs.html
One must be aggressive, persistent, and creative to treat the most stubborn of cases. Such a proposition is much more likely to end in success rather than failure.
It takes more courage to maintain hope than it does to lose it.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:844053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080805/msgs/845866.html