Posted by bleauberry on February 26, 2013, at 15:27:44
In reply to Melancholic depression, posted by Meatwood_Flack on February 26, 2013, at 10:25:08
You are probably correct, in my opinion, that serotonin is not the primary issue, and anything that is primarily a serotonin med is not going to work.
The melancholic side of things usually comes from something wrong in the norepinephrine/dopamine circuits. If anything is low, it's one of those. Prozac actually wasn't a bad choice, but it needed to be a low dose and needed a TCA or stimulant with it. Same for zoloft. All the others you've tried, forget it, that was fairly predictable.
You can try some easy cheap stuff that has the potential to work wonders. Rhodiola rosea is at the top of the list for that. Combines well. You could also try supplementing the precursors that make NE/DA, such as tyrosine and/or dlpa. Those are hit and miss, sometimes work like miracles, sometimes not helpful at all. Rhodiola is good.
In any case, if a med is going to favor serotonin, or is going to block receptors, it is probably not going to help melancholic symptoms and likely make them worse. So whether you take a look at any of the above suggestions or not, at least you know what to look for.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1038885
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130222/msgs/1038914.html