What can you tell me about serotonin and other hormones in the brain?

Exercise can raise serotonin and dopamine levels naturally. I’ve also heard that the SSRI drugs are relatively benign for the main but I can understand your reluctance to jump into taking one willy-nilly. However they do address chemical imbalances and if that is what does the trick, you shouldn’t feel that that defines you as crazy or depressed.

Try WebMD or the Mayo Clinic Web sites for more detailed reading.

Yes, be careful when it comes to the brain. My husband had to take a new med that had a mild anti-depressant, but was also to help him sleep. Like you he was nervous about adding another pill to his regimen, and not depressed, but after he tried it, the chemicals really allow him to sleep very solidly, so it helped a lot.

A pharmacist can give you a clearer understanding of what doctors prescribe certain meds for if you got a script.

@janbb: My friends keep telling me about different kids they knew who got put on antidepressants and then got even worse, even committing suicide. What’s the point of treating one thing if new stuff is just going to arise?

Ugh, SSRI’s are commonly prescribed to people in chronic pain and I hate it. I think there is some belief it helps with the pain, but I don’t believe that it helps with the actual underlying problem. Still, it can for some give relief of symptoms. You of course can try it, and see if it helps. I tried it and it was horrible for me, but some people do benefit.

I would not worry about becoming suicidal, you know better, you can stop the medication (just know some meds you have to wean off over a few days) and you are not severely depressed.

I will send your Q to our brain expert, she is online today.

@RandomGirl That can happen in some cases with adolescents but presumably if you are starting to feel more depressed, you would wean off of them. I am not telling you what to do; only you can tell how bad your symptoms are. And a good psychiatrist is a must. But I agree, it is not really a satisfying diagnosis.

@RandomGirl This is common concern for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and similar neurological disorders. Due to my own auto-immune issues, my serotonin levels bottom out unless I take Melatonin & 5HTP each night prior to bed.

There are alternatives to pharmaceuticals. As I stated on another thread, you may want to find an integrative physician in your area. Many DAN! (MDs trained in biomedical approaches) doctors also handle perplexing issues like yours to help balance health and avoid flare ups. You can find the DAN! docs in your area via your local Autism Society resources list or by asking at a local occupational therapy clinic.

Otherwise, for now, read up on supplements and altering your diet. You can increase Tryptophan naturally or with (look at link for more info) 5HTP.

My son (age 7) takes 5HTP & Melatonin, along with eating turkey each & every day.

We all do a minimum of 30 mins of exercise per day to release endorphins, too. Though this list is for Fibromyalgia it is a common treatment regimen for autism and auto-immune conditions. (see Treatment, Exercise & Nutrition and Supplements sections)

Your question is excellent but requires an answer that consists of far more than a few sentences. A complete beginning of an answer would consist of an introductory course in neuro-biophysiology.

Serotonin is an important naturally occurring chemical that affects how nerve cells communicate with each other. There are different types of nerve pathways that that have important functions and these are influenced by the relative amounts of a number of brain chemicals of which serotonin is only one.

If you have completed introductory psychology, chemistry, biochemistry and physiology, then you are ready for a course that will provide you a more complete answer to your question than any of us can offer here.

@Dr_Lawrence: I recognize that, but I don’t need to know everything about how the brain works. I simply need reading material to learn about how different chemicals in your brain affect function (like if you’re low in serotonin, you’ll experience these symptoms… Stuff like that). I need to learn about what nutrients aid in the production of these chemicals, and what I can naturally do to bring my levels up.

Are you telling me that, since I’m a layperson, the answers to these questions are ahead of my knowledge? I can’t take all those classes just to figure out what’s wrong with me, or how to get better. The medical profession has almost narrowed it down to this small set of causes. Now I have a choice: Let them put me on a drug that might do something altogether new to me, or learn and find a natural fix. Please don’t tell me that’s impossible.

Forgive me if I sounded like I was talking down to you or anyone for that matter.

Science’s ability to connect how a person feels to the precise chemical state of a person’s brain.

In my opinion you should start with your feelings and what bothers you and work from there. Despite considerable progress in our understanding of the brain and the many chemicals involved in how it works, it is still decades away from an exact science with precise knowledge of cause and effect. Often we can improve how we feel and influence our brain biochemistry best by working with the connection between thoughts and feelings. I hope this answer helps and gives you reason to hope for things to feel and work better.

Try to understand the difference between hormones, neuropeptides and neurotransmitters, for example by reading the Wikipedia articles. Blood and urine tests aren’t always conclusive. An expert can ask the right questions to come up with a good diagnosis.

@Dr_Lawrence and @mattbrowne Now I feel like I’m getting somewhere! Thank you.

@Dr_Lawrence Her major problem is chronic headaches, numbness in her extremities, and a host of other physical problems. If she is depressed, which would be completely understandable, it is likely secondary to her physical problems. I agree seeing a therapist would be helpful, because dealing with chronic illness, especially at the 3–9 omnths mark is a really horrible time for most people, which I think is about where the OP is now.

How do you feel about prescribing SSRI’s for chronic pain?

@RandomGirl what do you hope the drug will do? Did the neurologist suggest it? Did they mention taking a drug like neurotin?

@JLeslie: I would hope the drug would get rid of the headaches and give me back my energy. The rest of everything would be manageable if those two got taken care of. Yes, the neuro is the doc who suggested taking antidepressants, all though he didn’t name anything specific. And yes, this has been going on for about 7 months now.

@RandomGirl Neurotin isn’t an antidepressant, it kind of dulls pain tranmission, among other things, but makes some people feel “drugged.”

I know a few people who take antidepressants for chronic migraines.

Give us an update if you try them, let us know if it helps.

@JLeslie I would insist on a full neuro logical work-up before proceeding with ssri treatment for @RandomGirl depression. There is more than one process at work. There is hope for improvement but a much clearer picture of her problems and needs is required before just treating one aspect, namely the depression.

@Dr_Lawrence I have never heard of that being done for treating pain with SSRI’s. They are not primarily treatingnthe depression in my opinion. I don’t know why they use the SSRI’s meaning I don’t know if there is some theory that alleviatingnthe depression will lead to less pain, or if they think a property in the drug actually directly reduces the pain. You arefocusing on the psychological aspects because you are a pschiatrist, but I don’t think that is what they are really focused on in her treatment.

An analogy I would make is when doxicycline reduces symptoms of arthritis. The medical establishment wants to believe it is antinflammatory properties of the drug. I believe there is an infection.

Living with severe chronic pain than limits your ability to get out and interact with others, that interferes with maintaining a restful and consistant sleep pattern and that realistically predicts gradual deterioration of function and gradual increase in the pain you experience are all factors that can contribute to depression. Depression makes coping with chronic pain and its consequences much more difficult. It is for that reason that using SSRIs as an adjuct treatment to other medications has been found to be effecting in enabling severe chronic pain patients to cope more effectively with their condition. Neurontin (Gabapentin) effectively modulates the way pain signals are processed and really decreases the perceived level of pain. The initial side effects to which you referred do go away with time while the effect on pain perception is sustained over years. I know this from my own personal experience.

@Dr_Lawrence I understand that kind of logic behind the pain control/perception and SSRI’s. For me, I think my depression was barely a cause of my pain, and the SSRI was horrible for me because I was not very depressed I was sick. Further, it was extremely upsetting to me that doctor’s were not listening to me about what I believed to be physically wrong with me, and passing me off to psychiatrists for help added incredible stress to my situation. I did eventually find a therapists (Psychologist) who helped me cope with my situation, but I went through two others who were a catastrophe, focusing on psychiatric causes of my problem whether than physical. One of them had been tremendous help to me as a teen, it was very dissappointing. But, that was my experience, as I said above, other people I know find relief with SSRI’s.

By the way, later I was proven right, years and years later, when I had surgery and they saw physical evidence of what I had said about my condition all along. Maybe I would have been better off all those years coping better with some sort of psychiatric drug, I did for about six months take Buspar, because my anxiety was so high, but really if I had had more psychological fortitude to go to another doctor and another doctor, and not let them discourage me and damage I would have possibly been better off and received the drugs that finally helped me faster. I have tremendous regrets, and it unfortunately affects my answers on this sort of topic. The experience has affected many many parts of my life.