1. Sex, Love, and SSRIs

Comment #31278 by TeapotInOrbit on April 11, 2007 at 9:31 pm

Glacian,
I don't know enough of your medical history, but perusing the literature and reported adverse events, I couldn't find any cases remotely similar to yours. I'll have to do more reading, but it seems more likely that something else caused your condition and the venlafaxine was a confounding factor. Granted, if the venlafaxine did cause your condition, I'm not convinced that there was anyway to predict such an adverse reaction.

I have heard some of the internet horror stories, but I find it interesting that they only seem to turn up on internet message boards and such. I do not intend to belittle your plight, but uncorroborated anecdotes are a poor basis for an argument.

2. Sex, Love, and SSRIs

Comment #31252 by TeapotInOrbit on April 11, 2007 at 5:49 pm

Let me see if I can take a crack at a some of this.

I would like to defend Effexor (venlafaxine) as a highly efficacious drug. It has dual serotonin and norepinephrine (and slight dopamine) effects that likely explain why it is so effective, particularly in treating resistant patients. I hope that folks particularly on this website will consider the large amounts of data. To say that it is "a horrible drug" based on a single personal experience is a bit short-sighted.

Yorker:
I would hope that your comments on psychiatry and depression stem from misinformation. I am curious to know why you feel the field currently is "bad science." I'd be happy to point you towards any number of well run and peer reviewed studies in major journals.

Additionally, primary care physicians actually prescribe the majority of some of these drugs; many people never see a psychiatrist. Also, many antidepressants are used for things other than Major Depressive Disorder. For instance, buproprion (Welbutrin/Zyban) is used for smoking cessation.

As to psychiatrists never "curing" anyone, I think that is a gross misinterpretation. The definition of "cure" is flexible depending upon the disease one is talking about and in most cases I would argue shouldn't even be applied. One may "cure" ie: remove the cause, of a streptococcal infection with an antibiotic.

However, one does not truly "cure" many diseases: diabetes, familial high cholesterol, schizophrenia, etc. Medication, therapy, lifestyle changes, etc. may control symptoms and achieve remission, but the underlying pathology/predisposition will persist.


If folks are interested, I can get into more of the underlying biological correlates of depression and/or other psychiatric conditions.


More replies to follow; I want to address Karl's question about OCD and SSRI's

3. New clues to why we see red

Comment #27558 by TeapotInOrbit on March 25, 2007 at 9:25 am

I had trouble accessing the original article. I'm not too familiar with mouse visual pathways, but which components were they looking at? Would trichromatic mapping show up within the lateral geniculate nucleus, or did they look for cortical mapping in the primary visual cortex and beyond in dorsal/visual streams?

Oh BTW, I believe 3D mapping doesn't rely on trichomacy. If memory serves, different ganglion cells transmit signals preferentially from different orientations of light; I can't recall if this goes along the M or P cell pathway.

Okay, my brain is starting to hurt now and I think my old neuroscience professors are sensing a disturbance in the force.