Posted by bleauberry on September 10, 2009, at 18:53:23
In reply to 'treatment resistant depression', posted by rickjen on September 10, 2009, at 3:21:30
I totally agree with SLS's take. Awesome explanation.
I would like to add to that another angle. It is intended to be added to what SLS. Another piece of the pie, the same pie.
Depression can result from biological causes outside the brain that have nothing at all to do with the brain, nothing to do with a psychosocial issues, and nothing to do with any kind of life trauma.
The brain is the final target that receives the insult, but the fault may not actually be there. It could be somewhere else. Inflammation of the brain. What in the body is causing it? Drugs that manipulate neurotransmitters are not likely to have much impact on that kind of depression, unless the particular AD has demonstrated anti-inflammatory mechanisms. And thus it will appear to be treatment resistant depression, except it really isn't, it just isn't getting the correct class of medications or herbs. Infectious diseases. Same thing. Even things that appear as silly as food intolerances can make someone feel like crap and depressed as heck and they have no idea that favorite food of theirs is doing it.
These are difficult issues to deal with because they are impossible to pinpoint with routine testing. They can only be identified through trial and error and provocative testing or challenge testing. It is so much easier to follow the crowd and assume the theory of an imbalanced neurotransmitter is the only possible culprit. Much easier. Can't test for that either. It also is a trial and error challenge test. But for some reason, many are lulled into thinking the psychiatric challenge test is the only one under the sun.
So what I am saying is, some cases of treatment resistant depression are not in fact treatment resistant at all. They accidentally resulted in being perceived as treatment resistant because, of all the known biological causes of depression, and with a variety of toolboxes to choose meds from, the only toolbox considered was the psychiatric one.
poster:bleauberry
thread:916286
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/916396.html