Depression genes show when the drugs won't work

[The Straight Story]

Depression genes show when the drugs won't work

When depressed or chronically anxious people are prescribed drugs to treat their condition, it can take weeks before they know whether the pills have worked or not. Now psychiatrists have laid the foundations for a genetic test that could bypass that trial-and-error process by identifying patients who will not respond to particular drugs.

The researchers focused on a brain mutation that predisposes humans to depression and related disorders. They engineered mice to express the same mutation and found that the mice displayed classic signs of rodent anxiety. What's more, when given the widely prescribed drug fluoxetine, also called Prozac, the mice showed little improvement.

If the same happens in humans, it might help to explain why around 60% of patients given drugs for depression do not respond to the first medication that they are prescribed, say the researchers, led by Francis Lee, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York.

Beating the blues

A range of drugs called selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are widely used to treat depression. They all work by increasing the amount of serotonin, a chemical linked to emotional state, available to neurons in the brain.

But evidence is emerging that serotonin may not be the whole story. In 2003, for example, it was reported that fluoxetine may also work by bolstering neuron growth in the hippocampus, a region associated with learning and memory (see 'New nerves may fight depression').

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061002/full/061002-10.html

[Mountainman]

1. We're just a bunch of people doped up on drugs who can't deal with real

life problems.

There I thought I would get that out of the way and save a lot of DUers the need to reply with that meme.


I have been taking meds for depression and anxiety for a long time and when ever I stop my life is hell.

Bring on all the news you have for me because I want to hear it.

[The Straight Story]

3. Taking Zoloft myself

Seems to help :)

[Occulus]

4. I tried Zoloft.

I took it for two weeks. Never EVER again.

It wasn't the emotional "possible side effects" that did it, either. It was the BOWEL side effects. Oy vey...

[dysfunctional press]

8. zoloft = so soft...

as in the physical side effects that many guys get from it...

tell me again- how is making someone impotent supposed to HELP(???) with depression...?

[Faux pas]

2. Interesting article, thanks. n/t

[mntleo2]

5. I Don't Take These But ...

...as a person who fights depression every day I have found that just knowing I have it, that when I have a bout it will not last forever, and that I can do things that divert the depression as well as change the funk I am in, helps a lot.

I do believe a lot of Americans have to take some damn pill for everything. I understand a headache needing some tylenol, or a burn needing a salve, but sheesh, there are pills for everything. I am also ADD, so what? I tried to take the stuff they prescribe for focusing, but it made me a mess other ways and I realized, "Hey I have lived with this for over 40 years without anything, now that I know what it is why not learn ways around it rather than take some damn pill?" and more importantly (thanks to Thom Hartmann, whose work on ADD I knew about way before his talk show days and appreciated his take on it) why not look at the good side of ADD and enhance those abilities and use them rather than see the whole thing as some sort of "disability"?

IMO we depend on far too many pills and I believe it is a great deal because the pharmaceuticals have convinced us we need them so they can profit when in reality what we need are skills to cope and changes of attitude.

My 2 cents
Cat In Seattle

[Dem2theMax]

6. You are one of the lucky ones.

I have depressions that last months on end. And I mean hell hole, black as all get out, depressions. The kind where you LITERALLY hang on from MINUTE to MINUTE. And then you go WHEW that you made it though that one single minute. An hour feels like 24 hours. A day feels like a week and a week feels like a month. I've lost track of how many kinds of pills my doctors and I have tried. They don't work for me. Believe me, I've tried everything. Nothing works.

Like I said, you are lucky. Consider yourself blessed.

[Sperk]

7. oh, I so sorry Dem2theMax. I've never had any kind of depression

(just once in a while blues), but my son is now on Zoloft and it makes me sad. I try to be logical about it. Like, my daughter is on anti seizure meds and I don't feel bad about that, why can't I see my sons need for anti depressants the same way?

Hard to not take it personally when your a parent. Especially when you see your child as such a wonderful gift to mankind. How wonderful it must be to be so strong, intellegent, kind, handsome and so full of potential. To have your son who is all of these things even suffer the briefest depression is hard to accept. How can he not see how wonderful he is? ::-(

But I am an eternal optimist and I know that all of our experiences are for a reason and it is important to focus on the postitive.

best of luck to you and I hope you find something that works for you. :-)

[mntleo2]

9. Oh Hon...

I didn't say in my last post I have been there and I have also tried those new designer drugs. They worked for me for awhile, but my problem is that my medical coverage does not always happen and you can't just go off them cold turkey. I have done that and talk about black! Plus the most illogical thinking seemed to become logical and I went off the deep end ~ even knowing I was having to go off them cold turkey and trying to prepare myself.

When I heard that going off or starting these things have even caused people to murder loved ones and also become suicidal, well I could relate. I never got *that" way of thinking, but after some of the crazy things I did think were "logical" I understood why some of those people got into that frame of mind. It scared me enough to decide, "Hey I better learn how to not depend on that crap, I just have to learn how to deal with it another way," ~ and yeah you are right, I am lucky.

If you ever want to PM me and just chat, I am here to listen. Just write, and do not think I will think you are crazy, I will do my best to understand. Been there, done that. I have a very dysfunctional family ~ and besides my older sister, we have been through hell and back, and well we have made it and she is my best friend. She says I am the strongest person she knows, so I think I can take it.

Love
Cat

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Anti-depressants will not work if you are bipolar II, which was how we

determined that I was bipolar and not unipolr as was thought for so many years. The drugs just sent me into rapid-cycling and hypomania.