IUBio

A case report of GHB and Depression

Claude de Contrecoeur Cyrano at beehive.twics.com
Sun Dec 1 20:21:20 EST 1996


GHB(Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate).
A fast acting novel atypical anti-depressant.

Hi,
Claude de Contrecoeur has sent me a copy of your message to him and
asked
if I could send you a reply. I have personally used GHB many times, I
started after reading Claude's article somewhat over a year ago.

I was SERIOUSLY depressed, at this time I was taking:

50mg  Thioridazine (Neuroleptic)
40mg  Paxil/Deroxat (SSRI) - paroxetine - 
75mg  Anafranil (TCA) - clomipramine - 
60mg  Tranxene (Benzodiazepine) - chlorazepate -

This rather-extreme combination of meds was TOTALLY ineffective, as
Claude
often says my emotions were dulled-out a bit, but nothing more. The
Neuroleptics had no positive effects, just side effects. The Tranxene
was helping, but then it's an addictive substance and 60mg/day is
quite a lot.

I took GHB for about two weeks, at first I wasn't THAT impressed, of
course I felt better but then any drug does that. I noticed that my
condition was really IMPROVED after a couple of days, the depression
was just gone. This effect lasted a week after stopping the GHB, then
the depression came back (as I had no more supply of GHB).

Now I'm feeling better but still have some crisis from time to time,
GHB still alleviates the depression better than ANYTHING else I know.
Beside those prescription drugs I have also tried quite anything you
can get on the black-market, and none of these drugs is really an
"antidepressant", but GHB is!

>I mean, if gamma-OH is really the "fastest and most effective
>anti-depressant to date", then why isn't it's use spreading like
>wild-fire.  Oh, I know, Doctors don't want to prescribe it...

No that's not the (only) problem, there ARE doctors prescribing GHB.
For example there's Dr. Gallimberti in Italy which is using it to
treat Alcoholics with great success (I know one patient personally).
Dr. Gallimberti is an internationally respected doctor.

Also do not forget that the discoverer of GHB was Henri Laborit, the
father of Chlorpromazine, the first Neuroleptic. Laborit was convinced
of GHB's healthy effects and took it all his life.

The problem is that the research is JUST NOT YET DONE! Somebody has to
give the start-impulse, and this could be Claude. GHB is not totally
unknown in the medical field, my physician (which was a specialist)
knew about it, he just never heard of it being used as Antidepressant.

What happened was that he called EGIC in France, and unfortunately
they are quite unfriendly. They told him that "they could not
recommend the use of GAMMA-OH for anything else than anesthesia".
Of course, nobody will prescribe a medicine after being told something
like that. The EGIC company was taken over by a new company (Clintec)
some years ago, the old company was much more friendly from what I
heard.

>Look Claude.  If your snake oil was any good for anything, then you could
>EASILY get researchers interested in investigating it.  Lets see, I could
>get famous if I did a clinical trial demonstrating your gamma-OH was the
>best thing since sliced bread. 

Clinical trials cost A LOT of money, the (traditional) Antidepressant
moclobemide (Aurorix) for example will never be introduced to the USA
because it's too expensive to make all the trials required by the FDA.
The drug works great for SOME people, but most don't need it because
the normal antidepressants do the job!

Now, if people do not complain about the efficacy of traditional
antidepressants why should anyone produce something new?
New AD's are getting on the market, but very slowly.
The people who really NEED gamma-hydroxybutyrate
are people like me who are seriously
depressed and do not respond to any traditional Antidepressant.

Beside the combination mentioned above I tried dozens of other meds,
lots of Tricyclics, Aurorix (MAOI-B) and various SSRI's... It was all
just like drinking water. When I stopped taking them I noticed the
effect they had, they really just dulled out EVERY emotion (and I
didn't notice this while taking them).

If you are depressed and NOTHING helps, you would be really thanksful
for something like GHB!

- Name Deleted - 
(not associated in anyway with Claude)





More information about the Neur-sci mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net