New research published in the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry suggests that Rhodiola could represent an effective natural agent in the treatment of depression. The antidepressant effects of Rhodiola are associated with a decrease of stress activated proteins. This suggests a different mechanism of action than conventional antidepressant drugs and could be a reason why Rhodiola is relatively free from side-effects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17990195?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
That's fascinating. At some point, I want to hear your thoughts about the continuum between physical and psychological depression (I am fascinated, enraptured by continua these days). I'm very curious about the causation of chemical depression, well... I could go on for a while. I'm excited to talk to you more about this.
in terms of the continuum between physical and psychological depression i have always found the following quite interesting: Shortly after beginning a new course of anti-depressants, the chemical changes in the brain including an increase in the neurotransmitter serotonin happen quite quickly. however, the reported effects of anti-depressant drugs don't really start reaching clinical efficacy until after two weeks or more of use. this means that although there is an almost instant change in brain chemistry, the emotional and behavioral changes don't happen right away for most people. rather they occur much more slowly. clearly there is something additional to altered brain chemistry happening that is affecting the emotional states.
this topic has just become much more interesting with a new and very large british study that has just come out showing that antidepressant drugs such as prozac have no clinically significant effect meaning that they don't work: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/antidepressant-drugs-udontu-work-ndash-official-study-787264.html
curiously, the pharmaceutical industry is now being accused of withholding data on the drugs. i'll be posting more information about this soon....
Post a Comment