Evidence Regarding the Effectiveness of Front-Loading SSRI's

[m060mm]

I tried looking so forgive me if there's already a thread - you can just link me in that case. This may also belong in Healthy Living?

Anyone have any evidence at all? Supportive or detrimental, I'm just curious.

Anecdotal reports are welcomed too.

I was talking to a friend who said that whenever he starts (generally seasonal), he'll take extra to shorten the time to clinical effectiveness. Dosage, we're talking somewhere around maximum recommended; maybe 150%, I should ask for clarification. 'Reasonable' was the term we used, as we all know SSRI's present very little immediate danger.

*No combinations. (I mean, you're welcome to share your experiences but the above implies no other drugs are added.)

 

[nAON]

Not sure about SSRIs specifically, but I can see how this would speed up with hitting stable levels of the drug in your system. Say it has a half life of 24 hours and you take 100mg a day, this is how much you'll have in total in your body:
Day1 = 100mg
Day2 = 150mg
Day3 = 175mg
Day4 = 187.5mg
Day5 = 193.75mg

While if you take 150mg for the first day and then 100mg every day after that, it would be like this:
Day1 = 150mg
Day2 = 175mg
Day3 = 187.5mg
Day4 = 193.75mg
etc.

 

[m060mm]

I see where you're going, and I think it could be applied over a longer span (SSRI's generally take 2-4 weeks to take effect, so I imagine the front-loading would occur up until then.)

The actual mechanism of action is where I become uncertain. I admittedly know little about SSRI's but from what I understand, the research available leaves some factors unaccounted for. 'The cascade effect' is generally the prelude into hypotheses and inferential leaps. Some of these sound more fact-based than others, but again, I've skimmed these rationales at best. I'm hoping someone with more experience can help us out.

I suppose we know that we can reach a higher concentration sooner by increasing dose; the question is whether it has any effect. I guess what I'm trying to ask is that, assuming the trickle down theory (yay or nay?), is there a dose-proportionate response or is it a simple threshold ie. once it trickles down, any common dosage with 'flip the switch'?

I'm sure there's not a clean cut answer but.. halp?

 

[Oxide]

I'm going to shoot this over to OD for you. I think you might have a better shot at getting answers there.