David- Well I guess you are right on that and I dropped the ball. Of course the sudden removal of the antidepressant (SSRIs and buproprion seem particularly likely to do this) could unmask the already up or down regulated receptors as a withdrawal effect. That was so obvious that I thought right past it (of course, that's a nice way to say I WAS WRONG!). What I was thinking was it wasn't the reversal (down regulation of up-regulated receptors or vice versa) itself that was causing the withdrawal. But it would not be the metabolic effects (my answer) in that case either though they might add to the unmasked effects or even, in a couple of cases, multiply the effect. Funny- I was reading a study the other day that said you shouldn't do aerobic exercise before lifting weights (thought the press release completely missed the point to the study). Maybe I'll do a study to show that you should not do aerobic exercise before posting to tips. :) Thanks David that was a silly error on my part. (One I will humbly share with my psychopharmacology class to show them why you have to be careful not to think so hard that you think past the correct answer!). Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: David Epstein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sun 3/14/2004 7:03 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Cc:
Subject: RE: Withdrawal from antidepressants
On Sun, 14 Mar 2004, Shearon, Tim went:
> I think that the more likely correct factors (you did reference
> them) in "withdrawal" symptoms to antidepressants are the
> metabolically factors. The timing for up or down regulation is
> simply too long (4 - 6 weeks is more like it) and too subtle to
> explain withdrawal symptoms as they are most frequently reported.
I don't think that's necessarily so. It may take several weeks for
your SSRI to bring about certain up- or downregulations, but once
they've occurred, if you abruptly discontinue the SSRI and thereby
remove its acute effects, you're going to _unmask_ the effects of the
up- or downregulations, and that unmasking will start quickly. This
is especially likely for SSRIs with short half-lives such as Paxil.
--David
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