an excerpt from
"Tryptophan and 5-Hydroxytryptophan: Natural Prozac and Son"
IN
NATURAL ANTIDEPRESSANTS
Tried and True Remedies From Nature's Pharmacy
A Keats Good Health Guide
by Syd Baumel
Keats Publishing Inc., New Canaan, Conn.
copyright (c) 1998 by Syd Baumel
Ever since the dawn of the modern antidepressant era in the 1950s, tryptophan and 5-HTP have seemed born to the role of natural antidepressants. It was then that the two major biochemical theories of depression were first advanced. One postulated that a deficiency of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine lay at the core of depression; the other, that it was a deficiency of serotonin. As the years passed, evidence that tryptophan and serotonin are in short supply in depressed and violently suicidal people mounted steadily. Finally, in the 1990s the antidepressant market was overtaken by a class of drugs that did little or nothing but boost serotonin, the SSRIs.
Thirty years earlier, tryptophan had racked up its first successes, beating placebo and equalling antidepressant drugs and even electroconvulsive (shock) therapy in British clinical trials (van Praag, 1981). But while other investigators were usually able to confirm tryptophan's equivalence to drugs, the amino acid didn't deliver in most of its rematches with placebos and ECT (van Praag, 1981). Only as an adjunct to antidepressant drugs -- particularly MAOIs -- was it a respectably consistent performer.
Poring over the research, some psychiatrists noticed that (for nonbipolar depressives at least) there was a strong trend for tryptophan's failures to occur when it was prescribed at (or hiked up to) a relatively high dosage. Perhaps, they speculated, tryptophan has what is known as a "therapeutic window," that is, high dosages can be as ineffective as low ones (van Praag, 1981; Gelenberg et al., 1982). In roughly half a dozen subsequent trials, most of them utilizing relatively low dosages of tryptophan, this hypothesis has generally been borne out. Modest doses of tryptophan have, for example, proven effective as an alternative or adjunct to bright light for the winter blues (Lam et al, 1997)....
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R E F E R E N C E S
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Gelenberg, Alan J., et al., "Neurotransmitter Precursors for the Treatment of Depression," Psychopharmacology Bulletin (January 1982):7-18.
-
Lam, R. W. et al., L-tryptophan Augmentation of Light Therapy in Patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder, Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 42 (April, 1997):303-306.
-
Van Praag, Herman M., "Management of Depression with Serotonin Precursors," Biological Psychiatry, 16 (3, 1981):291-310.
Ever since the dawn of the modern antidepressant era in the 1950s, tryptophan and 5-HTP have seemed born to the role of natural antidepressants. It was then that the two major biochemical theories of depression were first advanced. One postulated that a deficiency of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine lay at the core of depression; the other, that it was a deficiency of serotonin. As the years passed, evidence that tryptophan and serotonin are in short supply in depressed and violently suicidal people mounted steadily. Finally, in the 1990s the antidepressant market was overtaken by a class of drugs that did little or nothing but boost serotonin, the SSRIs.
Thirty years earlier, tryptophan had racked up its first successes, beating placebo and equalling antidepressant drugs and even electroconvulsive (shock) therapy in British clinical trials (van Praag, 1981). But while other investigators were usually able to confirm tryptophan's equivalence to drugs, the amino acid didn't deliver in most of its rematches with placebos and ECT (van Praag, 1981). Only as an adjunct to antidepressant drugs -- particularly MAOIs -- was it a respectably consistent performer.
Poring over the research, some psychiatrists noticed that (for nonbipolar depressives at least) there was a strong trend for tryptophan's failures to occur when it was prescribed at (or hiked up to) a relatively high dosage. Perhaps, they speculated, tryptophan has what is known as a "therapeutic window," that is, high dosages can be as ineffective as low ones (van Praag, 1981; Gelenberg et al., 1982). In roughly half a dozen subsequent trials, most of them utilizing relatively low dosages of tryptophan, this hypothesis has generally been borne out. Modest doses of tryptophan have, for example, proven effective as an alternative or adjunct to bright light for the winter blues (Lam et al, 1997)....
Browse books on tryptophan at Amazon.com...
Browse books on 5-HTP at Amazon.com...
Browse books on the alternative treatment of depression at Amazon.com...
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- Gelenberg, Alan J., et al., "Neurotransmitter Precursors for the Treatment of Depression," Psychopharmacology Bulletin (January 1982):7-18.
- Lam, R. W. et al., L-tryptophan Augmentation of Light Therapy in Patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder, Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 42 (April, 1997):303-306.
- Van Praag, Herman M., "Management of Depression with Serotonin Precursors," Biological Psychiatry, 16 (3, 1981):291-310.