Posted by linkadge on November 22, 2009, at 19:54:19
posits that theraputic antidepressants produce a mild shock to the system enabling it to increase its resistance to more severe stressors.
Antidepressants, ECT, exercise, all increase proteins (BDNF, HSP, BCL-2) in the brain that serve to protect it from other stressors. Even things like sleep deprivation or cold showers are mild stressors that may produce the same effects.Antidepressants seem to work in other models of neurodegeneration such as Huntingon's perhaps through the same mechanisms.
This may also explain AD poopout. I.e. after the brain becomes accustomed to the drug, it no longer sees it as foregin and therefore no longer needs to protect itself against this. This may also explain why reinitiation of certain drugs sometimes fails to work (i.e. the body no longer sees it as toxic).
In higher doses AD's can be highly cytotoxic, as can things like resveratrol. But at the right doses they turn on the resistance switches.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:926610
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091117/msgs/926610.html