I'm currently reading a book title Treating & Beating Anxiety and Depression with Orthomolecular Medicine by Dr. Rodger H. Murphree. It is basically about finding out which neurotransmitter(s) deficiency is causing your depression and using amino acids and/or Sam-e, exercise, and adequate sleep among other things to correct the imbalance(s).
He doesn't believe in prescription SSRIs or MAOIs for treating depression. He thinks they can mainly be brought to normal levels using the amino acids which increase the levels of the depleted neurotransmitters.
If you are low in GABA, take L-glutamine or GABA with juice. If you are low in serotonin, take 5-HTP or L-tryptophan, if you are low in Dopamine take SAM-e, if you are low in norepinephrin take SAM-e.
He is a big advocate of taking L-phenylalanine and DL-phenylalanine for everything except if you have a GABA deficiency.
He also believes that fish oil is really good.
I wouldn't take caffeine if I were you. After you get your levels corrected, your energy and mood will come back.
Take the Braverman test and post back what your results indicated.
The main things are exercise, sleep, nutrition, multi-vitamin/mineral, adequate methylB12 and folic acid.
The 'correct' amino acids will supplement the above. In the end, all 'should' be gravy.
I think you owe it to yourself to try this route first before taking an SSRI and powerful dexedrine.
Good luck! Any questions, PM me.
because you also have ADD it would make sense that your depression may be in part caused by dopamine irregularities. from my understanding, giving more dopamine to an adhd patient won't help because the problem is not a deficiency but a processing issue. you either have low dopamine causing ADD, or ADD causing low dopamine. if its the second, dopamine precursors will not likely do you much good.
i have the same problems as the original poster, and for me caffeine (coffee in particular) has helped a lot. i personally don't see any problems with 1-2 cups daily, if there aren't any other stimuants being used...but im sure there are some objective downsides im not really considering. this is enough to win me over:
Like alcohol, nicotine, and antidepressants, caffeine readily crosses the blood brain barrier. Once in the brain, the principal mode of action of caffeine is as an antagonist of adenosine receptors found in the brain.[33] The caffeine molecule is structurally similar to adenosine, and binds to adenosine receptors on the surface of cells without activating them (an "antagonist" mechanism of action). Therefore, caffeine acts as a competitive inhibitor. The reduction in adenosine activity results in increased activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine, largely accounting for the stimulatory effects of caffeine. Caffeine can also increase levels of epinephrine/adrenaline,[34] possibly via a different mechanism. Acute usage of caffeine also increases levels of serotonin, causing positive changes in mood.
read this:
http://pharmrev.aspe...nt/full/51/1/83if you were me, and had my chemistry (which not a lot of people do, i would imagine) this is what would and would not work:
DLPA did nothing. tyrosine also did not have a positive effect (and i believe i read a study about tyrosine actually decreasing brain concentrations of dopamine?) rhodiola worked for a few days, but also sent me up and down mood wise, and eventually made me crash. bacopa and gotu kola would give me brain fog. St johns wort gave me brain fog. sam-e did not work for me, but if you're going to try it be sure to take b6 with it to keep your homocysteine levels low. L-theanine gave me brain fog. im not sure if this is because of an increase in serotonin. i've also taken a lot of other stuff that hasn't worked. but this is my chemistry of course, and you should try them for yourself if you think they may work.
whats been most helpful for me, and what i'd reccomend as a solid adhd/depression regimen:
*B-complex, try and get one that is in a balanced ratio and does not have 50 MG of everything.
*B6, try and get 50% more than what the complex has in it.
*Multi mineral complex: calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and copper deficiencies are all coorelated with adhd. Solaray "mega multi mineral" is excellent and fairly priced.
*magnesium citrate in addition to the multi-mineral, -oxide is not very bioavailable
*fish oil, 450MG - 900MG DHA daily, 650 - 1300 MG EPA (the first would be a typical dose, the second if you wanted to double up as you may be deficient since you have adhd. i buy nordic naturals brand, but its expensive and im sure something else would do fine. get one that is heavy metal free.
alp
*alpha lipoic acid, 100 - 200 mg daily. some say R-ALA is better, i have no say in the matter.
*ashwagandha, in the evening
* red panax, 1 vial, morning
*grape seed extract, jarrows formula, 100 mg in the morning. this is important if you have ADD.
*gingko biloba: 20 drops liquid extract up to 2 times daily. (fish oil, grape seed, panax ginseng, and gingko all thin the blood. its probably best two cycle them on different days.)
some general advice thats helped me: try removing wheat, gluten, soy, dairy, artificial dyes, preservatives, artificial flavorings, sugar, peanuts, almonds, fish, and eggs from your diet. the possibility exists that all of your problems are caused by a food allergy. eat green veggies daily. eat lots of protein, or if you're fat drink whey protein. get some intense cardio exercise with antioxidants pumping through your blood several times a week. don't sleep more than 8 - 10 hours, and don't sleep any less than 8 hours. and then an important question: would you still be depressed if your circumstance was different?
Edited by brain, 19 September 2007 - 08:30 AM.
