Posted by med_empowered on January 4, 2007, at 23:15:33
In reply to Re: stimulants as antidepressents, posted by laima on January 4, 2007, at 22:22:52
I dont think the "no stims for depression" thing is really based on good science. Think about it: alot of ADs, especially the energizing ones, operate like slow-acting stimulants, by pumping up neurotransmitter levels. Some, like EMSAM, are even partially metabolized into amphetamine/methamphetamine. So its not like today's treatments are that much different. Some docs I'm sure still give patients stims for depression w/o other stuff--in fact, its a pretty standard treatment for old or sick patients who may not tolerate ADs or who are on other meds that may have drug/drug interactions. If you google it, you'll see a lot of stuff on using ritalin in old people and ritalin and amphetamines in cancer and aids patients. The practice certainly isn't dead.
Also, I think the whole war-on-drugs thing recast stimulants are dangerous and addictive, where before the medical community had noted a dependence problem, but also saw that there were very real benefits from the meds. Now that Adderall is around and is seen as "medicine" first and "amphetamine/controlled substance" second, I suspect that more docs are (or will be) using stims in depression. Plus, there's that new ritalin patch, and there's work underway on less abusable forms of dexedrine so...I think we may well see a resurgence of stims-for-depression rx-ing.
poster:med_empowered
thread:719359
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070101/msgs/719468.html