Posted by linkadge on July 21, 2006, at 16:31:13
In reply to SLS: cholinergics, examples of, posted by stargazer on July 21, 2006, at 15:42:11
I was just about to start another threat about this exact topic!!
Yes, as was replied, they can improve mood. It is suggested that this effect is in part responsable for the mood elevating effects of the strongly anticholingeric TCA's.
I had a significant antidepressant effect from cogentin, especially if I took it right before bedtime. They also seemed to have antipanic and anti-irritability effects.
I don't think they've been studied too heavily in this regard, as to wheather tollerance will build.
I found anticholingerics resulted in a rather pleasant and mindless bliss, a great escape to the thought frenzied hypercholinergic states which resulted from too much studying and testing.
Anyhow, there is the cholinergic adrenergic theory to affective disorders, and that is that depressive disorders arise from cholinergic predomanance, and that mania is a result of insufficiant cholinergic tone in respect to the catecholamines.
You can shift activity along this axis in one of a few ways. Taking an anticholinergic or by taking a noradrenergic, dopaminergic, or serotonergic drug, can decrase cholinergic activity at different areas of the brain.
Anticholinergics have a *mild* abuse potential. Administraton to rats seems to cause a (relativly mild) release of dopamine in the pleasure centres of the brain.
I had a friend that looked for anticholinergics to smoke with his marajuanna. (As if the memory loss from pot was bad enough!)
Blocking acetycholine can result in dopamine release in other areas of the brain. Anticholinergics can also reduce REM sleep, a result that often shows documented effects on mood.
I also read a few studies that suggested they were effective acutely in the forced swim test in mice.
Taken together, I honestly think that anticholinergics could be a usefull adjuntive to certain cases of depression. They certainly helped me trememdously, and I'd like to find a doctor keen enough to try that route again.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:669008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060717/msgs/669069.html