Opiod deficiency

[Laudaphun]

SWIM has a question he's seen posed on other forums... There are some who have been suggesting that depression can result from not only a "deficiency/over reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine. Depression can also result from a deficiency /over reuptake of your endogenous opioids" Endrogenous opiods are endorphins, dynorphins, and enkephalins (our bodies naturally produced opiods).

In the past opiates have been used as anti-depressants, until they were replaced by more fine tuned substances. However there are people who claim that no traditional anti-depressant will help their depression (SSRI, MRI, SNRIs..). These people are saying that small doses of buprenorphine is the only thing that works for their depression. This is a concept that seems to be gaining popularity and people there are a lot of people who believe that there is actually a medical condition known as 'endogenous opiod deficiency'. Obviously chronic use of opiates would cause this type of deficiency, however what about people who take opiates for the first time and feel like they've found that something that has been missing all their life... an example given by MrJim in http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32115 Buprenorphine is already being used as an off label anti-depressent in a number of people by bold physicians in patients who have responded to no other traditional anti-depressent. Is this truely a legit condition and if so, could it be caused by a mother's use of opiates while pregnant as mentioned in the link just mentioned? SWIM believes himself that this is very likely a good possibility, however he'd like to get the opinion of people who are more familiar with psychology, pharmacology, medicine, etc. Do you think 'Endogenous Opiod Deficiency' is an actual medical condition, or do you think its just that most of these maintanence patients are just getting a little bit of euphoria from their medicine?

Reputation Comments on this post:

extremely interesting thread