Some new thinking on depression and brain chemistry
in [Weights]
|
Prev: Internet identity crisis for two popular police informants, Darya "Dasha" Gunchenko, Rajni Parmar
Next: gunchenko babes
From: Jim Janney on 8 Jul 2008 19:09 Traditional antidepressants, from MAOIs through SSRIs like Prozac, are applied with the goal of increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain. The thinking is that serotonin improves mood by regulating neural function at an electrochemical level. The problem is that mood and serotonin levels don't always correlate as well as this would predict. Now there is a new theory as to why Prozac helps people: the active ingredient, fluoxetine, seems to help damaged or atrophied brain cells to repair themselves: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/ Relevance to this news group is that physical exercise seems to have similar effects. -- Jim Janney
From: Andrzej Rosa on 9 Jul 2008 15:55 Dnia 2008-07-08 Jim Janney napisa�(a): > > Traditional antidepressants, from MAOIs through SSRIs like Prozac, are > applied with the goal of increasing the levels of serotonin in the > brain. The thinking is that serotonin improves mood by regulating > neural function at an electrochemical level. The problem is that mood > and serotonin levels don't always correlate as well as this would > predict. Now there is a new theory as to why Prozac helps people: It's a new theory to explain nonexistent effect? Damn, that's impressive. Another model which needs only observations to become valid. Wonderful world of semi-science. > the > active ingredient, fluoxetine, seems to help damaged or atrophied > brain cells to repair themselves: > > http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/ > > Relevance to this news group is that physical exercise seems to have > similar effects. Sure. Mental health advise was always very relevant to this news group. ;-) -- Andrzej Rosa 1127R
From: Jim Janney on 9 Jul 2008 18:15 Andrzej Rosa <bakters(a)yahoo.com> writes: > Dnia 2008-07-08 Jim Janney napisa�(a): >> >> Traditional antidepressants, from MAOIs through SSRIs like Prozac, are >> applied with the goal of increasing the levels of serotonin in the >> brain. The thinking is that serotonin improves mood by regulating >> neural function at an electrochemical level. The problem is that mood >> and serotonin levels don't always correlate as well as this would >> predict. Now there is a new theory as to why Prozac helps people: > > It's a new theory to explain nonexistent effect? Damn, that's > impressive. Another model which needs only observations to become > valid. Wonderful world of semi-science. Some things work for some people some of the time. Prozac did seem to be a breakthrough at the time, but the more indiscriminately a drug is used the less effective it becomes overall. But yeah, current differences from placebos are unimpressive. >> the >> active ingredient, fluoxetine, seems to help damaged or atrophied >> brain cells to repair themselves: >> >> http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/ >> >> Relevance to this news group is that physical exercise seems to have >> similar effects. > > Sure. Mental health advise was always very relevant to this news group. > ;-) True, that. -- Jim Janney
From: Andrzej Rosa on 9 Jul 2008 20:44 Dnia 2008-07-09 DZ napisa�(a): > Andrzej Rosa <bakters(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >> Dnia 2008-07-08 Jim Janney napisa�(a): >>> >>> Traditional antidepressants, from MAOIs through SSRIs like Prozac, are >>> applied with the goal of increasing the levels of serotonin in the >>> brain. The thinking is that serotonin improves mood by regulating >>> neural function at an electrochemical level. The problem is that mood >>> and serotonin levels don't always correlate as well as this would >>> predict. Now there is a new theory as to why Prozac helps people: >> >> It's a new theory to explain nonexistent effect? Damn, that's >> impressive. Another model which needs only observations to become >> valid. Wonderful world of semi-science. > > Some people swear by Prozac and the like. The Polish girl at the gym, > for example :-) I'd stay away from her. Not that this advice would be of any value to a married man, of course. Purely theoretical consideration. Besides, one of the huge bunch of well documented side effects of Prozac is lowered libido... > P.S. 64-bit Fedora-9, hard drive encrypted with LUKS, is nice. My > wife's notebook with Windows finally broke, so I put Linux on a new > one, booted, NetworkManager showed a list of wireless networks, clcked > on mine, and that's it. It's so intuitive now, she became comfortable > with it in one day without help from me. I pulled new Sabayon edition. Didn't try it yet, but the old one was working fairly well, so I expect this one to work too. It's based on Gentoo, but it has binaries and all this recent automatic gizmos which make it easy to use. Worth a try, if somebody is a geek and a bit bored too. > Now I don't have to worry about all those NASTY THINGS THAT MIGHT BE > LIVING in it: > > "40% of the 800 million computers connected to the Internet are bots > engaged in distributing e-mail spam, stealing sensitive data typed at > banking..." > http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2008-03-16-computer-botnets_N.htm Scary thing is, that people consider this thing normal. It isn't. It's a pathology which our children will not be able to understand. -- Andrzej Rosa 1127R
From: Andrzej Rosa on 9 Jul 2008 21:00
Dnia 2008-07-09 Jim Janney napisa�(a): > Andrzej Rosa <bakters(a)yahoo.com> writes: > >> Dnia 2008-07-08 Jim Janney napisa�(a): >>> >>> Traditional antidepressants, from MAOIs through SSRIs like Prozac, are >>> applied with the goal of increasing the levels of serotonin in the >>> brain. The thinking is that serotonin improves mood by regulating >>> neural function at an electrochemical level. The problem is that mood >>> and serotonin levels don't always correlate as well as this would >>> predict. Now there is a new theory as to why Prozac helps people: >> >> It's a new theory to explain nonexistent effect? Damn, that's >> impressive. Another model which needs only observations to become >> valid. Wonderful world of semi-science. > > Some things work for some people some of the time. Just about anything will work for some people some of the time. How about farting upwind? Nah, it's hard to sell. > Prozac did seem to be a breakthrough at the time, It didn't. It was advertised that way, but it's not the same thing. > but the more indiscriminately a drug is > used the less effective it becomes overall. But yeah, current > differences from placebos are unimpressive. Old data pulled from FDA show the same lack of effect. Actually that was the study which convinced me. The study was I think from 2002, but data were older. The original set which was required to approve fluoxetine for use in the USA. Anyway, don't assume that detectable difference from placebo mean anything. About 80% people guess correctly when they are asked if they are in a placebo group or on actual antidepressants, so it's much above average. Some part of observed "effect" must be due to that. People guess correctly mostly because of side effects. [...] -- Andrzej Rosa 1127R |