[irfladyblue]

My Dr. has done at least 2 sets of (4 months apart) lab work and found below reportable dopamine or epinephrine levels in my system. The 1st time I was on 3 different anti depressives. Has any one else has these types of tests and results?

[shezbut]

I haven't, no.

But those low levels of good neurotransmitters explains a lot. Dopamine makes people feel very good, relaxed, happy. Epinephrine gives people the energy to get up and move.

Are you going to a clinic with experienced psychiatry staff? There is a long list of medications that may treat different disorders. Some people can't take certain meds for all kinds of reasons. Some people are also very resistant to treatment medications, it can take up to 6 months before positive changes are seen. I have been on many different medications and dosages myself, but never had that testing done.

It may take awhile to find the right medication, or combination, that is right for you. Hope that your doctor/s figures out the right mix for you soon! If you are in the treatment-resistant category: as far as I know, the biggest hope is to find a therapist (and maybe group) that works well with you. That takes time too, no quick and easy answers. Sorry!

Gentle hugs to you

[sunrise]

Was it a blood or urine test? If so, it is not very useful. The place where dopamine and epinephrine have effects relative to mental health are in the central nervous system, which doesn't communicate much with the bloodstream due to the blood/brain barrier. And urine is simply the wastes from our blood, so neurotransmitter levels in urine will also tell you nothing about what is going on in your brain. The local concentration of neurotransmitters in your brain is what is important to mental health, not in your "system", and there is no way to test for the levels in your brain unless you want to cut open your brain and do immunochemistry staining on slices of it (I am not really suggesting this). This is the technique they used in rodents to show that "depressed" rodents have low levels of certain neurotransmitters in their brains. Your doctor should really know all this. I am skeptical of your doc. Is he/she an MD? Does he/she sell nutritional supplements as a sideline?

Unfortunately, the best way we have right now to tell if a person will respond to a certain medication that affects neurotransmitter levels in the brain is simply to try them on the med. If it doesn't work after a few months, then the psychiatrist tries something else. I know this sounds so lame, but it is the best we have right now.

[Jerrypharmstudent]

Originally Posted by irfladyblue

My Dr. has done at least 2 sets of (4 months apart) lab work and found below reportable dopamine or epinephrine levels in my system. The 1st time I was on 3 different anti depressives. Has any one else has these types of tests and results?

This sounds very fishy to me. You cannot discover that you are low on dopamine or ANY neurotransmitter from a blood test - as far as any that would effect a mental illness. The only way to see the concentrations of neurohormones in the brain is by PET scans and the like. There is also is a test called the Dexamethazone Suppression test - but it does not measure blood levels of neurotransmitters instead it deals with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis - which is involved with depressive illnesses.

From wiki:
"The dexamethasone suppression test is designed to diagnose and differentiate among the various types of Cushing's syndrome and other hypercortisol states. It has also been used in the research of depression.

Dexamethasone is an exogenous steroid that provides negative feedback to the pituitary to suppress the secretion of ACTH. This steroid is unable to pass the blood brain barrier which allows this test to assess a specific part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Specifically, dexamethasone binds to glucocorticoid receptors in the pituitary gland, which lies outside the blood brain barrier, resulting in regulatory modulation."

May I ask who this doctor is? Is he/she a board certified MD/OD? Psychiatrist?

Something tells me that you may be being taken advantage of - but I cannot tell without more information.

Be careful

Jerry