Yang, 2012 Antidepressants are neuroprotective against nutrient deprivation stress in rat hippocampal neurons

[Phil]

I noticed these two extracts posted on a blog I follow on twitter and thought I should post them here:

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08247.x/full

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08187.x/full

[Brandy]

I only skimmed these articles both because I find reading most scientific studies tedious and because I've seen either these or similar ones over the years. If I'm missing something, let me know. I honestly like to keep an open mind about everything (not just withdrawal), which makes me feel like a fish out of water in society these days.

 

But I think what these studies have proved is that nutritional deficiencies are bad for people.

 

I'll make this reply short because I now have a burning desire to pursue a revolutionary idea I've had. I'm going to invent the wheel.

 

Seriously, NOT knocking your introducing this topic of discussion, Phil. It should be discussed. I just think the implications of studies like this need to be thought through. That's where the medical profession has let us down, big-time.

 

My point is that maybe (maybe) this means that in a short-term case of severe and unavoidable nutritional deprivation, antidepressants can keep one functional by artificially compensating for what meeting one's nutritional needs sufficiently should do.

 

But I don't think these studies are addressing either the full or the long-term implications of doing this.

[Altostrata]

Both of these studies are on rats, and probably short-term, with the rats sacrificed at the end and their brains ground up and analyzed.

 

Who knows what they mean. How did the rats feel while on antidepressants? Did they have any adverse physiological effects that would cancel out the supposed benefits?

 

Phil, when you post in Journals, please also post the abstracts with the links. Thanks.

[aza]

I only skimmed these articles both because I find reading most scientific studies tedious and because I've seen either these or similar ones over the years. If I'm missing something, let me know. I honestly like to keep an open mind about everything (not just withdrawal), which makes me feel like a fish out of water in society these days.

 

But I think what these studies have proved is that nutritional deficiencies are bad for people.

 

I'll make this reply short because I now have a burning desire to pursue a revolutionary idea I've had. I'm going to invent the wheel.

 

Seriously, NOT knocking your introducing this topic of discussion, Phil. It should be discussed. I just think the implications of studies like this need to be thought through. That's where the medical profession has let us down, big-time.

 

My point is that maybe (maybe) this means that in a short-term case of severe and unavoidable nutritional deprivation, antidepressants can keep one functional by artificially compensating for what meeting one's nutritional needs sufficiently should do.

 

But I don't think these studies are addressing either the full or the long-term implications of doing this.

 

I suggested in one of my posts about my taper off of gabapentin and the subsequent withdrawal I experienced was like my nutritional defeciencies were masked (unnoticed by me) as I felt relatively fine on the gabapentin but once off gabapentin I experienced the most (god awful) withdrawal like nothing I had ever experienced in my life.

 

And most importantly I was kept on gabapentin for over 10 years at 2400 mg to 3000 mg (large dose) for (long time). So the long term deprivation was masked for quite a long time. It seems that doctors give very little consideration to the potential of these druggs to strip our bodies of essential nutrients and to compound the situation by masking the defeciencies that may develop or allready exist.

 

It has occured to me that depression may just be a symptom of vitamin and mineral defeciencies.

 

Nothing I did seemed to ease the withdrawal and it seemed an endless withdrawal, untill I supplemented with magnesium and vitamins. And the withdrawal just went away, eh it may be more complicated then I suggest but it's clear to me that magnesium and vitamins helped me over come the withdrawal (if thats what it was).

 

I could remask the withdrawal and feel fine by increasing the amount of gabapentin I took. It seems to make sense that I had a severe magnesium and vitamin defeciency. As I have very little in the way of noticable withdrawal symptoms now that I take a magnesium and vitamin supplement.

 

The one area where I am still experiencing withdrawal or at least some kind of (bad kick back from the prescription drugg use is my cognitive function seems slightly to moderately effected but no withdrawal that I phisically feel.