Posted by bleauberry on July 5, 2012, at 17:45:29
In reply to Re: Depression that worsens with age? » bleauberry, posted by SLS on July 2, 2012, at 5:23:33
I don't know Scott. What you say is very interesting. I have no doubt prior ssri usage plays a role. Without evidence I suspect the NE/DA systems are more vulnerable to damage, alteration, or decline than the serotonin system. I am not in the camp that believes serotonin is the major player in most cases of depression, so it could be patients are not getting an opportunity to try anything different than ssris until later in life. ???
> > I think depression does get worse with age. Scanning hundreds of articles on pubmed over the years, the general trend looks to me the older the age the better response to norepinephrine/dopamine strategies rather than ssri strategies
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> That's a great observation.
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> Do you think that it is possible that as one ages with depression, the number of prior exposures to SSRIs accumulates fastest, leading to one's treatment resistence to them? After all, poop-out with SSRIs is more common than with any other type of AD. Yet, they are used first, and their subsequent effectiveness greatly reduced.
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> Alternatively...
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> It would be informative to investigate a cohort of older people who are suffering their first episode of depression. Perhaps there is a difference in the psychobiology and treatment response of late life onset depression. Unfortunately, the risk of developing Alzheimers Dementia increases greatly in such cases.
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> - Scott
poster:bleauberry
thread:1020589
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120630/msgs/1020890.html