Posted by JohnL on January 18, 2001, at 2:46:04
In reply to Re: Mood Stabilizers to combat Depression, no mania, posted by Bob on January 17, 2001, at 22:20:26
> John:
>
> I have seen you post quite a bit on this board lately in strong support of the your patented "A&A" combo. It must really be working very well for you. How long have you been on it?
>
> BobHi bob,
The patented A&A combo! :-) That's funny. I guess I do push this combo, but only in certain cases. Primarily cases where several meds from several different categories have already been tried, the type of depression is characterized by prominent blahness, or someone is just fed up with the whole routine. When frustration mounts, I think it's important to know that other avenues exist. Hope is crucial. Sometimes just by someone's description of their depression I can get the sense in advance that SSRIs will be disappointing, and that A&A would be better. A&A is especially well suited for certain types of depression, but probably not for any type of depression. A&A I don't think would be a good choice for someone suffering from depression with significant anxiety. Not that A&A would worsen anxiety, though I guess it's possible, but anxiety generally needs more of a serotonin or GABA approach instead of a dopamine/NE approach. The blah kind of depression though is a different beast. Our common meds seem rather impotent at treating this kind.Unlike SSRIs or mood stabilizers, which would likely do zip for a non-depressed person, A&A can provide benefits to anyone, not just someone with a chemical imbalance. And as has been noticed here by a small handful of people who have tried A&A after being disappointed with just about everything else, improvement is very likely. While the odds for success with any random drug are about 70%, I would roughly guess the odds for success with A&A is probably closer to 85% or 90%. Just a guess though. Nothing at all scientific.
I've been on this combo now for a few months. Though I experienced improvement rather quickly, I must admit I still am experiencing gradual steady improvement as time goes on. Each passing week seems a tad better than the previous week.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:51818
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010111/msgs/51932.html