I'll Take Combo #1

 

DEPRESSION has come up with many diseases. It's a common problem. I specifically look at a certain medication, because of a personal experience I had. I look at the SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. It's an antidepressant. It is commonly prescribed with many disorders, or on its own.

First, my personal experience:  I took an SSRI soon after coming out of a coma due to a brain injury. The medication was for an immediate behavior, but we see later indications that the drug may have had other effects.

http://hddrugworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=203&Itemid=119 states specifically Prozac. So have a few other studies. If you look at my personal experience, though, I did not take Prozac. I took a different SSRI. So the whole group of SSRI needs to be looked at, not just one medication. This group is associated with neuronal growth. "Increasingly, scientists believe that SSRI drugs work in HD and other diseases by stimulating neurogenesis.  Researchers from Europe and Australia have shown that fluoxetine (Prozac), an SSRI drug, increases BDNF levels, improves cognition, and greatly enhances neurogenesis in a mouse model." This "stimulating neurogenesis" means it would affect MANY other problems and diseases. 

Now I get to the combination of SSRI and therapy. The key word is "combination." This, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=prozac-extinguishes-anxiety-rejuvenating-brain, got me thinking about the combination of medicatiion and therapy. I looked more into it and found http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15315995. "CONCLUSION: The combination of fluoxetine with CBT offered the most favorable tradeoff between benefit and risk for adolescents with major depressive disorder." CBT is cognitive behavioral therapy. More on this combo... "The research may help explain why a combination of therapy and antidepressants is more effective at treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than either drugs or therapy alone. Antidepressants may prime the adult brain to rewire faulty circuits during therapy." http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=prozac-extinguishes-anxiety-rejuvenating-brain&WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20111228

When you get to me, you wonder, "How could this be? What kind of therapy works on that?" The clue lies in here http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/09/they-are-neuroplasticians.html. I attended rehab at the earliest. Rehab got me started. The Early Intervention ("They Are Neuroplasticians!") came next. The whole time in the medical system, I took the SSRI. There again would be that combination of drug and therapy.

"They are not just antidepressants.  They are first-line treatments for most of the symptoms in HD including anxiety, irritability, and depression. They help to restore healthy sleep patterns, and they improve cognition.  Their use can often decrease the need for antipsychotic medications http://hddrugworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=203&Itemid=119." No, they are just not antidepressants. I'd call them "neurogenerators." They start the basic neural process, generates it. The therapy develops it. Once it's done, it's up to you as to what you do with it.