All the antidepressants act on neurotransmitters so they have an impact on the function in the MS brain. Every one. In am certain that it comes as no surprise at all to pharmacists, and I know Odd Duck's work was sent to the NMSS for evaluation and they said they would look at her material closely. Of course I have a sad lack of faith in them to evaluate such a thing well since it is off patent...
Her theory is really interesting but it has a lot of speculation in it in spite of the fact as one reads it it seems very much as if she has figured it all out to certainty. But many of the supposed positives she mentions are based on things that are only speculated to be beneficial in MS or not at all. For example, one thing she mentions is antiTNF factors, but if you put a RA patient on an antiTNF drug like Enbrel they have a statistically significant risk of GETTING MS -it's hard to see that it is at all necesarily true that adding an antiTNF would result in MS reduction. If anti TNF would work for MS Enbrel would be targeting us for research as their antiTNF drug is expensive-perfect for MSers!- and they are not doing this because of the increased incidence of MS and other neuro problems like optic neuritis (
http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/enbrel ) in their study groups----which, by the way, may represent a "normal" incidence of co-autoimmune diseases the drug company says.
Another kind of interesting thing is that odd duck makes some statements about how these drugs worked well for her and that they know she has had MS since birth so she assumes it will help everyone with MS, but she was later discovered not to have MS at all. I *THINK* it was FMS she was eventually diagnosed with and she announced this on this site. So her statements about feeling halfway normal for the first ime in her life on these drugs may not compare to other MSers in any way, and these drugs
are standard of treatment for FMS/CFS.
Odd duck did a great bit of sleuthing and good work on her study there but make no mistake, it is very speculative.
I personally have not been able to take antidepressants due to the anticholinergic side effects, but antidepressants which can aid sleep, would have been a god send for an insomniac like me
marie