# How long after taking 5-HTP can you start taking an SSRI?



## A Sense of Purpose (May 8, 2011)

^


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

Umm probably the same day you stop. 5-htp is pretty useless in the CNS. Most of it is converted to serotonin in the peripheral system.


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## A Sense of Purpose (May 8, 2011)

Ah righto. So basically within a couple hours it can be safe? And probably about 8-9 hours after taking zoloft it would be safe to take the 5-htp again?


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

Depends how long you been taking zoloft. But it takes a good 5-7 days to clear once it's steady state.


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## thundercats (Mar 12, 2012)

kehcorpz said:


> Umm probably the same day you stop. 5-htp is pretty useless in the CNS. Most of it is converted to serotonin in the peripheral system.


Where do you know all this ****? Seriously. Do you read about this all day long?


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

thundercats said:


> Where do you know all this ****? Seriously. Do you read about this all day long?


Yah I've been reading about it for years because I've always wanted to cure my illness. And I went the natural route initially and found it to be a waste of time and it's really what got me into the science of things. Everyone online was saying this stuff works but it didn't, so I wanted to know why. You can stop it from converting by using a decarboxylate agent. It would be interesting to see if a doctor would prescribe it for use with 5-htp.


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## thundercats (Mar 12, 2012)

kehcorpz said:


> Yah I've been reading about it for years because I've always wanted to cure my illness. And I went the natural route initially and found it to be a waste of time and it's really what got me into the science of things. Everyone online was saying this stuff works but it didn't, so I wanted to know why. You can stop it from converting by using a decarboxylate agent. It would be interesting to see if a doctor would prescribe it for use with 5-htp.


That's impressive. I also wish I had more understanding out this stuff but I've never been good at chemistry.

Personally I wouldn't want to take 5-HTP long term I think I read that raising serotonin can cause heart damage or something like that.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15781732

The question would be does the same also apply to SSRI or do they only affect serotonin in the brain?


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

Yah I think that's one of the reasons they caution not to use too much 5-htp. In the peripheral system it can induce heart issues. Particularily the valve that the study refers to. SSRIs are probably less likely to cause issues but they still can. Different drugs can cause chain reactions in the body and bind to different receptors other than serotonin. I think Paxil inhibits g protein coupled receptor kinase 2 which may actually be good for the heart. At least with regulated drugs we at least have more info on what they can do. Something "natural" will never be as widely tested as there's no money in it. So you'd think you would want to exercise more caution.


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## thundercats (Mar 12, 2012)

kehcorpz said:


> At least with regulated drugs we at least have more info on what they can do. Something "natural" will never be as widely tested as there's no money in it. So you'd think you would want to exercise more caution.


Absolutely. I think it's ridiculous when someone on TV is selling a supplement and then says "It's a supplement it doesn't have side effects". This is stupid. It's virtually impossible to know what happens if you're on prescription drugs and at the same time add a "supplement" like a crazy herb or whatever. That's why I'd not take anything extraordinary while being on drugs. I even worry that certain foods could interfere with drugs, who knows? I don't think that when new drugs are tested they also test for food interactions. They cannot take every food which is out there and then see if it interacts or not. I guess they find out about food interactions when a lot of people start using the drug.


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## metamorphosis (Dec 18, 2008)

The links included are concerned with 5-HTP. Some have comparative studies concerning 5-HTP and SSRI's. I do not think 5-HTP works for everyone. Just as other serotonergic meds. have both positive and negative responses. Everyone's physiological make up is different. So, I have no bias personally. Also, keep in mind, that big pharma. heavily promote their medications. Turn on the T.V. and invariably a commercial will pop up by a pharmaceutical company pushing their latest patented med. It is also well known that these companies minimize the possible side effects that can be experienced. Look at the initial release of Prozac and Eli Lilly's claim of sexual side effects. According to the package inserts their studies claim that these side effects only occur in 2 - 5% of patients It later became apparent that around 60% of patients taking serotonin boosters experience a wide variety of sexual dysfunctions. This being one example.

Here is an article evaluating 5-HTP and tryptophan. Also, references to studies quoted in the text are listed in section 7.

http://www.smart-publications.com/articles/5-htp-the-natural-alternative-to-prozac-section-3/

Concerning major pharma and supplements-

The reason 5-HTP has been largely ignored by most conventional physicians can be summed up in one word -- patentability. Like all commercial drugs, SSRIs are patented compounds that can be marketed exclusively by the companies that own the patent. This gives them an sole right to market the drug until the patent expires, usually after 17 years

With no guarantee of exclusivity, it is rare for a pharmaceutical company to absorb the hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs involved in years of laboratory and clinical trials, not to mention millions more for promotion once the product is "launched." When faced with a natural product such as 5-HTP, a pharmaceutical company's typical response is to study how it works and then try to create/synthesize a brand new -- and patentable -- molecule that does approximately the same thing

Some other links concerning 5-HTP-
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/5-hydroxytryptophan-000283.htm
http://users.humboldt.edu/jmmorgan/unip_s05.htm


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