[Hypogonadism]happy holidays, ssri's, etc

[Guest guest]

Hope everyone's holiday season was/is peaceful and bright.

Visits both to and from friends and relatives have left little time

for internet use recently, but I did notice on this and another

group, the discussions about SSRIs and their side effects.

I have some personal knowledge due to a family history of clinical

depression and anti-depressant medications. My hereditary depressive

disorder has been successfully treated with the MAO inhibitor,

parnate, for several decades and my sister takes an SSRI, lexapro, w/

good results. Our mom who would have nothing to do with medications

was a victim of suicide due to untreated depression.

Here is some info I can share from my experience:

Lexapro is celexa with one half of its chemical formulation removed.

The isomer that was removed was responsible for sexual and other side

effects. This was told to me by my psychiatrist and to my sister by

her doc - both practitioners from Europe.

You won't find this information in lexapro advertisements, because

including it would be damning celexa along with all the

manufacturer's other SSRI drugs. The info for physicians for lexapro

states only that:

" At the chemical level, Celexa is a mixture of two mirror image

halves called S- and R-enantiomers. The R-enantiomer does not

contribute to the antidepressant effect so it was removed, leaving

only the therapeutically active S-enantiomer. The new drug that this

process created is Lexapro. "

However any man suffering from clinical depression would be wise to

insist on lexapro if SSRI med is being prescribed, to avoid erectile

complications.

Another good choice, already mentioned, is wellbutrin (bupropion).

This link contains very revealing info. Apparently this drug is not

only devoid of sexual side effects, it also enhances sexual abilities

in many patients. Again, you won't hear this from the parent company

for political reasons.

http://bupropion.com/wonderwell/index.html

As to trazadone, prescribing this for a depressed person is

malpractice IMO. It is a sleeping pill, period. My road to a cure

for clinical depression includes a few summarily fired psychiatrists

who felt that it was appropriate to prescribe tranquilizers and

sleeping aids for depression. Clinical depression saps enough energy

without adding a pharmaceutical energy drain on top of the illness.

But the most egregious and widespread prescription error in common

practice (perpetuated by drug cos) is giving AD drugs to persons

whose depression stems from some other endocrine malfunction or

deficiency.

There is an appropriate questionnaire for diagnosing actual clinical

genetic depression. It includes such questions as:

Do you have pervasive feelings of hopelessness and pessimism?

Do you often feel like crying for no reason?

Do you find it hard to summon the energy to perform routine daily

tasks?

Have you had these feelings in the past?

Do you have a family history of depression?

etc etc

The fact is that once an endocrine system goes out of whack and is

left untreated, it will eventually effect all other biochemical

systems including neurotransmitters, resulting in depression. So it

is important to determine which system failure came first. Treating

with antidepressant meds when the failure stems from, let's say

hypothyroidism, is injudicious and will not solve the problem. Many

of the suicides and psychotic episodes one hears of in the news from

AD meds are from their prescription to persons with adequate amounts

of seratonin and the efficiently functioning synapses. This creates

neurotransmitter overload.

I consider blood hormone level testing to be a worthless diagnostic

tool, but the failure of each biochemical system leaves a

personalized marker that can facilitate identification.

Which symptoms came first is the pivotal question in looking for a

root cause. Example: the thyroid gland controls metabolism, thus the

first symptoms heralding a deficiency of thyroxine are likely to be

weight gain or loss, low energy, and dull hair which will eventually

break and fall out. Untreated for a long time, skin lesions can

erupt, libido disappear, and serious depression set in. Depression

however in this instance is a symptom or a secondary failure. This

person's problems will not be reversed by anti-depressant treatment.

Prescribing AD meds for a patient suffering from hormone disorders

such as andropause, menopause, hypothyroidism, pituitary problems,

etc is just going to compound the problem.

I hope this will provide some clues for those wrestling with the anti-

depressant dilemma. ADs can be life-saving (and I mean this very

literally) for those with actual clinical depression, but their

misuse and misprescription is widespread.

A very interesting application of acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic

acid is treatment of depression. It happened by accident, but I have

completely supplanted my MAOI with high doses of this amino

acid/antioxidant combination, and the AD effect between parnate and

ALC/ALA is indistinguishable. I assume that ALC/ALA's effect in

promoting cellular efficiency and repairing neural (synaptic)

connections is responsible. I have info on the various uses of this

therapy at

http://infowomanhrt.tripod.com/ALC_ALA.html

(links to specific uses and supporting studies at bottom of page)

Cheers,

[Guest guest]

The psychiatrists may have said that, but it is completely untrue. I don't know

where that misinformation started. The incidence of sexual side effects with

lexapro are just as high as with celexa or any other SSRI. Also, some people on

the SSRI board have persistent sexual problems long after quitting lexapro. Not

just ED, but problems with orgasm and desire etc.

Removing the r-enantiomer does not eliminate the sexual side effects because the

r-enantiomer is basically biologically inert. It doesn't do anything, positive

or negative.

BTW, removing an enantiomer can sometimes make a more toxic drug. For example

Eli Lilly tried to remove s-fluoxetine from prozac to make r-fluoxetine and

found out that it causes heart problems so the drug was never brought to market.

Yes, apparently the racemate is safer.

Interesting article over here:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ZYZu2uQ-hO8J:fqvictims.org/News/Smoke%26Mir\

rors/area.htm+r-fluoxetine+toxic & hl=en

And although wellbutrin does have a much lower incidence of sexual side effects

than the SSRIs, and can sometimes, as you say, be pro-sexual, in some people it

too can cause sexual dysfcuntion after prolonged use.

Vornan

>

> Hope everyone's holiday season was/is peaceful and bright.

>

> Visits both to and from friends and relatives have left little time

> for internet use recently, but I did notice on this and another

> group, the discussions about SSRIs and their side effects.

>

> I have some personal knowledge due to a family history of clinical

> depression and anti-depressant medications. My hereditary depressive

> disorder has been successfully treated with the MAO inhibitor,

> parnate, for several decades and my sister takes an SSRI, lexapro, w/

> good results. Our mom who would have nothing to do with medications

> was a victim of suicide due to untreated depression.

>

> Here is some info I can share from my experience:

> Lexapro is celexa with one half of its chemical formulation removed.

> The isomer that was removed was responsible for sexual and other side

> effects. This was told to me by my psychiatrist and to my sister by

> her doc - both practitioners from Europe.

>

> You won't find this information in lexapro advertisements, because

> including it would be damning celexa along with all the

> manufacturer's other SSRI drugs. The info for physicians for lexapro

> states only that:

> " At the chemical level, Celexa is a mixture of two mirror image

> halves called S- and R-enantiomers. The R-enantiomer does not

> contribute to the antidepressant effect so it was removed, leaving

> only the therapeutically active S-enantiomer. The new drug that this

> process created is Lexapro. "

>

> However any man suffering from clinical depression would be wise to

> insist on lexapro if SSRI med is being prescribed, to avoid erectile

> complications.

>

> Another good choice, already mentioned, is wellbutrin (bupropion).

> This link contains very revealing info. Apparently this drug is not

> only devoid of sexual side effects, it also enhances sexual abilities

> in many patients. Again, you won't hear this from the parent company

> for political reasons.

> http://bupropion.com/wonderwell/index.html

>

> As to trazadone, prescribing this for a depressed person is

> malpractice IMO. It is a sleeping pill, period. My road to a cure

> for clinical depression includes a few summarily fired psychiatrists

> who felt that it was appropriate to prescribe tranquilizers and

> sleeping aids for depression. Clinical depression saps enough energy

> without adding a pharmaceutical energy drain on top of the illness.

>

> But the most egregious and widespread prescription error in common

> practice (perpetuated by drug cos) is giving AD drugs to persons

> whose depression stems from some other endocrine malfunction or

> deficiency.

>

> There is an appropriate questionnaire for diagnosing actual clinical

> genetic depression. It includes such questions as:

> Do you have pervasive feelings of hopelessness and pessimism?

> Do you often feel like crying for no reason?

> Do you find it hard to summon the energy to perform routine daily

> tasks?

> Have you had these feelings in the past?

> Do you have a family history of depression?

> etc etc

>

> The fact is that once an endocrine system goes out of whack and is

> left untreated, it will eventually effect all other biochemical

> systems including neurotransmitters, resulting in depression. So it

> is important to determine which system failure came first. Treating

> with antidepressant meds when the failure stems from, let's say

> hypothyroidism, is injudicious and will not solve the problem. Many

> of the suicides and psychotic episodes one hears of in the news from

> AD meds are from their prescription to persons with adequate amounts

> of seratonin and the efficiently functioning synapses. This creates

> neurotransmitter overload.

>

> I consider blood hormone level testing to be a worthless diagnostic

> tool, but the failure of each biochemical system leaves a

> personalized marker that can facilitate identification.

>

> Which symptoms came first is the pivotal question in looking for a

> root cause. Example: the thyroid gland controls metabolism, thus the

> first symptoms heralding a deficiency of thyroxine are likely to be

> weight gain or loss, low energy, and dull hair which will eventually

> break and fall out. Untreated for a long time, skin lesions can

> erupt, libido disappear, and serious depression set in. Depression

> however in this instance is a symptom or a secondary failure. This

> person's problems will not be reversed by anti-depressant treatment.

>

> Prescribing AD meds for a patient suffering from hormone disorders

> such as andropause, menopause, hypothyroidism, pituitary problems,

> etc is just going to compound the problem.

>

> I hope this will provide some clues for those wrestling with the anti-

> depressant dilemma. ADs can be life-saving (and I mean this very

> literally) for those with actual clinical depression, but their

> misuse and misprescription is widespread.

>

> A very interesting application of acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic

> acid is treatment of depression. It happened by accident, but I have

> completely supplanted my MAOI with high doses of this amino

> acid/antioxidant combination, and the AD effect between parnate and

> ALC/ALA is indistinguishable. I assume that ALC/ALA's effect in

> promoting cellular efficiency and repairing neural (synaptic)

> connections is responsible. I have info on the various uses of this

> therapy at

> http://infowomanhrt.tripod.com/ALC_ALA.html

> (links to specific uses and supporting studies at bottom of page)

>

> Cheers,

>