Posted by linkadge on November 19, 2003, at 6:49:39
In reply to Re: What do you have to say about this?, posted by HIBA on November 19, 2003, at 5:10:14
First off, there are fundemental differences between the way cocaine, and antidepressants act.
Cocaine, acts in a center of the brain, that leads to sudden, distinct and powerful reward. But cocaine's reward, is not a satisfying reward. It never leaves the user feeling satisfied or at peace.
99.99 percent of all prozac users find a therapudic dose that works, and then can stick with that. A functional antdepressant does not create artificial pleasure (ie cocaine) but instead reinforces centers of the brain that derive pleasure from familiar and socially acceptable things.
Prozac - I enjoy watching seinfeld again
Cocaine - with my newfound power, I can surely do
anything/and everyything 50 times
times better than anyone.
(selfish hedonistic drug - rarely leads
to depression recovery)
It is true that on the surface, one a common reputake mechanizm might make one think that they are the same deal, however studies show that most addictive substances work on totally sepearate centers of the brain, than do antidepressants.
Ie, thats why they took certain antidepressants off the market - Amineptine (survecor)- because upon further investigation, it worked more in ways of a drug with abuse potential - ie produceing tolerance, feelings of pleasure but chronic disatisfaction
If you are wondering why, some people can get off antidepressants more easily than others, then I would relate the issue to smoking. Smoking works as an antidepressant through inhibition of MOAB, No tolerance to this effect is apparent.
However recent research suggests that those with genes predisposing one to chronic dopaminergic malfunction, are the ones who cannot get off of smoking as easily as others.While, anybody can get addicted to cocaine, I would argue that only those with genes coding for poor activation of 5ht1a receptors are the ones who may very well be cronically needy of antidepressants. Does this mean that they're addicting - certainly no more than uncle harry is a addicted to insulin.
http://www.neurotransmitter.net/serotoningenetic.html
Here are a bunch of studies discussing the relationship between certain genes, the deficit in serotonin reputake inhibition capacity, and the predispositio to depression.
One such study shows that if you possess a certain gene varient, than you will have
inescapably have a 3 fold increase in reputake
capacity, leading to 1/3 the serotonin avaiability of the general population. You can force feed yourself 5htp all you want, but if your brain is coded for altered metabolism of the chemical, then you will enevitably only get so far.
You can choos whatever path you want.Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:281142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031116/msgs/281160.html