Xref: utzoo sci.med:4906 sci.psychology:187
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From: todd@uhccux.UUCP (Todd Ogasawara)
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Medication for Obsessive-Compulsive disorders?
Message-ID: <1734@uhccux.UUCP>
Date: 6 Apr 88 20:04:49 GMT
References: <2425@saturn.ucsc.edu> <3909@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1684@uhccux.UUCP> <1710@uhccux.UUCP> <759@spdcc.COM>
Reply-To: todd@uhccux.UUCP (Todd Ogasawara)
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)
Lines: 25

In article <759@spdcc.COM> dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) writes:
]In article <1710@uhccux.UUCP>, todd@uhccux.UUCP (Todd Ogasawara) writes:
]] At correctly prescribed dosages there are no long term dangers (that I know
]] of) associated with Imipramine except for dependency.  
]
]Imipramine does not cause dependence, if "dependence" means "produces
]drug-seeking behavior" upon cessation of long-term administration.
]Imipramine has well-known characteristic side-effects, whose strength

My apologies for not being clearer.  I should have said something more
like: Due to the lag between the first administration of Imipramine and the
time it first takes effect, it is often difficult to tell whether an
improvement in the patient's condition is due to the effect of the drug or
some maturation effect (changes that took place with the passage of time
rather than being caused by the drug).  This might mean that a person would
be taking Imipramine when he or she may not need it anymore.  This leads to
a situation similar to the old story of the group of people who continued
to pray for the sun to rise each morning because they feared that if they
stopped the sun would not come up and they would all die.  I admit that my
usage of the word "dependence" was inappropriate. ..todd

-- 
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program
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