Alternative Treatment for Clinical Depression ?
Q.Several years ago, after being treated with Paxil for clinical depression, I started doing some research. I was not happy with the effects of Paxil. Altho it did help my depression, it did nothing for other symptoms I was having, and I started thinking about cause and effect. I haven't lurked here before, so I don't know if this has been discussed.
A.I came to the conclusion that my depression was a symptom, not a root problem, of a problem that was basically electrical in nature. I didn't "have depression," I had a nervous problem and the mistakes it caused me to make then made me depressed. Paxil just made me feel good about making bad decisions (could this explain the incidents of anti-depressant users becoming homicidal/suicidal?). Anyway... my research led me to the drug Dilantin (Phenytoin), which is used predominantly for controlling epilepsy and other seizure disorders. Dilantin acts as an intracellular voltage regulator, or, more accurately, it fine-tunes the cells own voltage regulating system. If you have too low voltage, it will raise it; if you have too high voltage, it will lower it. I never had any interest in chemistry or the life sciences, so this is a layman's view of reading technical papers that I don't totally understand and I may not be explaining it correctly. I came across the Dreyfus Medical Foundation, which publishes two books. One is the story of Jack Dreyfus (financial guru, for those of you old enough to remember the TV commercials for the Dreyfus Mutual Fund) and his discovery of Dilantin (he had the same electrical problem as I do) titled "A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked" and the other is a compilation of s tudies on alternative uses for Dilantin and gets quite technical, titled "The Broad Range of Clinical Use of Phenytoin." I get one of those now, not dilantin but a seizure medication, one also for migraine. There are several such drugs in use for depression, but few physicians prescribe them. Even few psychiatrists do. The medication I am taking is the same, low dose. There are other drugs they also use and there are combinations and some of the drugs have extremely low doses when used for depression. The problem is finding a physician skilled in their use. My psychiatrist had never heard of using Dilantin to treat depression until I showed him some of the studies listed in the book I got from the Dryfus Foundation. Over the past five years, I too have had many of the same symptoms of depression. I was diagnosed with something called dysthymia, which is mild depression that can last for decades. I went on Zoloft, and absolutely hated it. I didn't like the feeling of being artificially happy all the time. I've done alot of research on what's called Omega-3's. You may have heard of them. They're fatty oils that come from fish like salmon. They're promising in the field of depression treatment. I have had great success with omega-3's, and encourage you to try them also. They're very inexpensive, and you can get them at any health hut like GNC.
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