Baclofen and Anxiety

[spacebebe01]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Im taking 50ml a day a cant say I am feeling any reduction in anxiety at all, it feels kind of like its been spread all aver my days now like butter tho instead of coming and going like it used to Although I have always felt that I have permanent low level anxiety going on, but now it just feels thicker

[suneelca]

Baclofen and Anxiety

space -- and would you say that you have suffered from persistent and high anxiety?

[spacebebe01]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Sun I have always suffered from anxiety, but a note to my last post, this morning I am feeling mellow, in a kind of stoned way and it probably wouldnt be great if I had to work, but right now it is a good feeling that is keeping me from the guilt and thoughts that have been plaguing me recently.

[LadyLush]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Cass,

My anxiety was under control with Bac until I started the Celexa. I have panic attacks like never before. Space is on Effexor and feeling like me as are others (sorry Space!)...Maybe Red too.
The mix has to be playing with the brain and both trying to win the anxiety effect.
I hope Otter is here and will help you/us on this.

Thanks.LL:l

[spacebebe01]

Baclofen and Anxiety

I hope so to I dowonder if the antidepressants are causing more trouble than helping

[suneelca]

Baclofen and Anxiety

LadyLush - why the Celexa? Depression?

I've had nothing but bad experiences with ADs. Turns out that they are absolutely the wrong thing if one has bipolar disorder. Although now am beginning to question that diagnosis as Nothing seemed to work until started taking Bac. Hope that isn't too confusing.

I think Karen / Neva has posted that one way to go is to just go with Bac alone, ride out the SEs, and let the Bac do its magic. Am rapidly beginning to agree with that.

[LadyLush]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Sun,

Depression yes, and I believe menopause is kicking in as well. I am going to give it 2 more weeks but will go back to Baclofen alone if the anxiety does not subside.


Thanks!
LL

[Otter]

Baclofen and Anxiety

There is just too much talk here about whether SSRIs or Baclofen treat this or that word, anxiety, depression, etc. Drugs treat the brain, not words. Baclofen treats the amygdala and limbic systems. SSRI's are reuptake inhibitors, whatever that means or good it does. They stop serotonin from "escaping", that is, if your drinking has left you with any serotonin to escape, which is unlikely.

Bipolar is a disorder of the amygdala so Baclofen would work on that. http://pediatricbipolar.stanford.edu...ala_BD_dev.pdf

The question is, why would Baclofen not work on bipolar and is it just another variation of "anxiety" which is treated with Baclofen? Manic - anxious, same thing?

[Otter]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Apparently, stroke causes GAD, in case anyone has had a stroke. PMT/hormones affect the amygdala as well. It seems the amygdala is like some sort of central processing unit so that pretty much all mental illness is really a disorder of this area of the brain. The whole concept of mental illness is questionable as it all relates to brain disorder and now seems treatable.

[gratitude]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Otter,
I think you are jumping to conclusions on this one. Correlation does not imply causation.
The article is implying that the amygdala is involved with other parts of the brain in certain mental illnesses. Not all mental illnesses.
Hopefully, there will be studies out soon on the effect of Bac on the amygdala. If you know of any double blind placebo controlled studies could you point them out? Still waiting for the results of theBac study on alcoholism from Denmark or wherever.

[Bruunhilde]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Isn't there some research behind the idea that you can deplete yourself of seretonin in a few ways, like ADs or drugs/al, and you can also not make enough? Thus the ADs wouldn't work if you don't have any seretonin to reuptake, so the answer is to take trytophan to help create seretonin but make sure you have lots of vitamin C and B's first?

Just throwing this out there. No expert.

[Otter]

Baclofen and Anxiety

Causation v. Correlation:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Stroke Patients : A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

The study showed that "none" of the subjects had GAD prior to stroke. So, "apparently" stroke causes GAD.

Bipolar:

This is the only study of baclofen on mania: Growth hormone response to baclofe... [Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1999] - PubMed - NCBI. There are a number of studies which show bipolar is a condition of the amygdala. The question is , does it work on Bipolar? Is the term just another description of "anxiety"? What is the orgainic difference between the amygdala in someone with GAD and someone with Bipolar? The statistics I have read are that somewhere in the region of 80% of bipolar patients medicate with alcohol.

viz. http://pediatricbipolar.stanford.edu...ala_BD_dev.pdf
The amygdala has been strongly linked to a
variety of anxiety disorders in youth and adults,
including social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder
(GAD), and simple phobia (Goossens, Sunaert,
Peeters, Griez, & Schruers, 2007). The
amygdala’s role in fear conditioning is likely the
reason for its role in anxiety disorders (see reviews
by Pine, 2007; Rauch, Shin, & Wright, 2003;
Stein,Westenberg,&Liebowitz, 2002). This concept
is supported by studies demonstrating higher
levels of self-reported fear following fear conditioning
paradigms in youthwith anxiety disorders
(Lau et al., 2008). In general, amygdalar overactivation
has been reported in anxiety disorders.
Youth with GAD have been found to have amygdalar
overactivation when viewing angry (Monk
et al., 2008) or fearful faces (McClure et al.,
2007). A recent meta-analysis found increased
amygdalar activation in studies of posttraumatic
stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific
phobia (Etkin & Wager, 2007). Amygdalar
underactivation may also be relevant, as in adults
withGAD. In adults withGAD, greater treatment
response to venlafaxine was predicted by less
amygdalar activation to fearful faces (Whalen
et al., 2008).


Serotonin:

Joan Larson gives a good description in Seven Weeks to Sobriety of the depletion of serotonin through drinking with the result that SSRI's are particularly useless in treatment of alcoholism. She uses L-Tryptophan to treat with B and C vitamins. Interestingly the "third generation" anti-depressant Optimax is just L-Tryptophan.

[gratitude]

Baclofen and Anxiety

I read the GAD study. It doesnt say that Stroke causes GAD. It is correlated. There are other variables that have to be accounted for. Such as social isolation after stroke,etc. will read the rest soon. Thanks for posting.

[Otter]

Baclofen and Anxiety

gratitude;1222710 wrote: I read the GAD study. It doesnt say that Stroke causes GAD. It is correlated. There are other variables that have to be accounted for. Such as social isolation after stroke,etc. will read the rest soon. Thanks for posting.

The report says that stroke is commonly is associated with GAD. If one accepts that GAD is a neurological brain disorder of the amygdala then it would seem to me to be likely that the damage to the brain caused by stoke actually "causes" damage to the brain which results in GAD. Otherwise, what you are saying is that either stroke does not cause brain damage, which it does, or that this damage doesn't amount to GAD and that, then, there are some other factors which come into play which somehow cause this brain disorder. Or, you could be saying that GAD is not a brain disorder at all and neither is addictive craving, which sort of misses the point of all these people here using chemicals to correct something in their brains.

[Otter]

Baclofen and Anxiety

It says that they are commonly associated conditions in people who did not have GAD before their strokes.
I would say that the social isolation is a result of social anxiety stemming from GAD, not the other way around.