Posted by sowhysosad on April 26, 2009, at 16:51:46
In reply to Re: Woohoo! - Feeling worse on memantine - Woohoo! » sowhysosad, posted by SLS on April 26, 2009, at 15:50:22
> Absolutely. I wish more people would approach their drug trials that way. I would be so happy to see more people get well here.
I completely agree - it upsets me to think some people will never get well because they won't live with comparatively mild side effects that may well pass after a couple of weeks. There's a thread here about Remeron where I express my frustration with a friend who fits into that category, although I do believe her pdoc didn't think his med strategy through properly before treating her.
> Part of what drives me to tolerate so much crap is the recognition that the quality of my life depends on a successful treatment of my depressive disorder. Once I had a taste of what it was like to be without depression, I became that much more resolute in wanting to succeed in finding a treatment that would allow me to emerge from the darkness and pain.
Yeah, I feel the same way after experiencing my first bout of MDD to last more than a few weeks, and being disappointed by several successive meds (previously the first SSRI tried has usually worked and I've gone into remission within weeks). I'm a lot more determined to get well again, and willing to compromise - transient side effects or an MAOI diet don't seem like such a big deal any more. As you say, I KNOW I can be free of depression and feel motivated to get back there.
> It might be the nature of the illness that the only pharmacological tools that produce long lasting remissions involve changes in gene expression. For instance, it takes roughly 2 weeks for gene expressions to change such that compensatory changes occur in receptor numbers after the initial exposure to an antidepressant drug.
You've eloquently explained the underlying science of my argument there.
poster:sowhysosad
thread:892879
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090426/msgs/892903.html