Hi There,

I'm new to this forum and I'm interested in knowing if anyone has tried Tianeptine, and, if so, what their experiences have been with it. I'm going to be starting treatment with it shortly and I'd like to know everything I can before I do it. Thanks in advance!

-Cary

Tianeptine is a novel antidepressant. Unlike SSRI's, it actually enhances the uptake of serotonin in the brain. If you want to read a very scholarly review of the literature go to <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.tianeptine.com">http://www.tianeptine.com</a><!-- w -->.

The least you need to know is that it has been shown in clinical trials to be as effective as SSRI's like zoloft, paxil and prozac, but without the emotional blunting or sexual side effects associated with SSRI's. There is some evidence in animal models that it also improves memory functioning and helps reverse some of the damage done to the hippocampus (one of the areas responsible for memory formation in the brain) due to depression and anxiety.

I'm currently taking the drug and have been on it for about three weeks now. I haven't noticed any negative side effects and it has lifted the negative mood I'd been in. Unfortunately it's not available in the USA, although you may obtain it online without a prescription. It is however available in many other countries in the world including, Brazil, the UK, France, Turkey to name a few. Good luck!

I'm not familiar with the drug at all and I'm no neuro-pharmacologist - but, and I'm open to better explanitions than this, it seems to work by stopping the chemical and anatomical changes that take place in the brain when it's under stress. It also suggests that this leads to a re-balance in that part of the brain (the HPA) that is thought responsible for mood regulation.

Quote:Stress-induced structural and cellular alterations in the hippocampus can contribute to the pathophysiology of depression. The reversal of these alterations may be a mechanism by which antidepressants achieve their therapeutic effect. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the effect of tianeptine on stress-induced structural changes and alterations in cerebral metabolites. It was found that all stress-induced effects were prevented by the administration of tianeptine. It is concluded that these findings provide experimental evidence for recent theories that impairment of neuronal viability and neuroplasticity might be important causal factors in mood disorders, suggesting tianeptine as a potential stimulator of neural resilience.

http://www.tianeptine.com/resilience.html

Yeah, that's my take on it too. It seems to recalibrate the limbic system or HPA axis which gets totally out of whack when you suffer from depression and anxiety. Studies have shown that Tianeptine reduces the amount of free circulating corticosterone, the stress hormone that is believed to cause the damage to the hippocampus mentioned above.

I can't deny there's a neurobiological thing going on - but the HPA is out of whack most often because of stress - an external 'force' and surely, ergo, removing the external stressors would also work in the same way?

I wish they'd spend as much money on reducing the external precipitants of stress as they do the medication.

For the cost of the individual drugs they could probably supply a much more widely socially viable option.

I agree that there are a lot of things in the external world that could be a lot better--the economy, the fact that many people are living paycheck to paycheck, the crappy health care system we have in America.

However, for me, the "external" things that have caused my anxiety and depression are things that are not going to go away. I suffer from social phobia and have dealt with it since I was in grade school.

I'm very vividly aware that my reactions to people are unnecessary and unwarranted. However, all the same I my phobia is still with me.

I feel comfortable speaking to a handful of people. And even among those that I feel accept me, I find myself stuttering, and that feeling of anxiety blooming in my chest when I am around them.

Everything is an interaction between the physical body and the environment. For some, the physical body is hardwired to react differently, more intensely to certain kinds of stressers--things that most people might not even consider stressers.

That's why, for me, I feel a combination of psychotherapy and drug treatment is best. Because, unless I were to lock myself away, my external precipitants will always be there.

You sound positively well balanced in your understanding of yourself and treatment options.

I hope you find the best drug treatment to optimise that positive approach.

If/when you get on the Tianeptine - would you mind dropping in and letting us know how it goes?