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I followed an old article found here, that i raised a question on in the thread http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-18723.html, and kept on hitting research that found that Prozac and related drugs caused new neurons to be made. I am guessing with prozacs proliferation, that some people here could have been on it at some time.

My question is, did you notice anything?

Although most if not all talk is on the hippocampus specifically.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=31697

Dr Anthony Hannan and his team also found that fluoxetine restores the brain's process of neurogenesis - the birth of new neurons - to normal levels, which helps delay the onset of the inherited fatal disease.

A search on google provides 37,400 hits
Google Search
For example...
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/prozac-neurogenesis.htm
http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Blood ... 356BW.html
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/psycho ... enesis.htm

I've seen this stuff and wondered if it would be good for this myself. But the neurogenesis mentioned is in the hippocampus as you say- not an area related to motor function, an area of the brain related to feelings and bahavior.

I have not taken it due to anticholinergic effects, that wuld be constipation and urinary retention, a big problem for MSers. I hope someone can give better feedback!
marie

Here's more fuel to the prozac/fluoxetine fire -- they seem to aid in neural stem cell (NSC) survival. I guess there's no established connection between NSCs and MS, but I can't help but think this could be helpful.



Antidepressant administration modulates neural stem cell survival and serotoninergic differentiation through bcl-2.

Curr Neurovasc Res. 2007 Feb;4(1):19-29.
Chen SJ, Kao CL, Chang YL, Yen CJ, Shui JW, Chien CS, Chen IL, Tsai TH, Ku HH, Chiou SH.
Stem Cell Lab, Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Rd., Taipei 112, Taiwan. shchiou@vghtpe.gov.tw.

The hippocampus has long been associated with learning, memory, and modulation of emotional responses. Previous studies demonstrated that stress-induced loss of hippocampal neurons may contribute to the pathogenesis of depression. The recent observations supported that antidepressant drugs increase the production of serotoninergic neurotransmitter and they play a critical role in the initiation of neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

In order to explore the possible new mechanism of the treatment of depression, we cultured neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from the hippocampus of adult rats as an in vitro model to evaluate the capabilities of neuroprotection and neural differentiation in NSCs by fluoxetine (FL) treatment.

Our results showed that 20 microM FL treatment can significantly increase the proliferation rate of NSCs (p<0.05), and up-regulate the mRNA and protein expressions of Bcl-2 in Day-7 FL-treated NSCs (p<0.01). Using Bcl-2 gene silencing with small interfering RNA, our data verified that FL can prevent Fas ligand-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in NSCs through the activation of Bcl-2. The in vitro observation and immunofluorescent study further demonstrated that FL treatment can stimulate the neurite development and serotoninergic differentiation of NSCs through the activation of Bcl-2. Using microdialysis with high performance liquid chromatography- electrochemical detection, the functional release of serotonin in the differentiating NSCs with FL treatment was increased and simultaneously regulated by the Bcl-2 expressions.

In sum, the study results indicate that antidepressant administration can increase NSCs survival, promote the neurite development, and facilitate NSCs differentiating into the functional serotoninergic neurons via the modulation of Bcl-2 expression.

Pubmed reference

nothing new to add, but stumbled across some new links on this topic:
http://www.cshl.edu/public/releases/06_ ... arget.html

They found that Prozac treatment specifically stimulates the generation of a kind of cells they dubbed “amplifying neural progenitors” or ANPs--the second step in the neurogenesis pathway from stem cells to mature neurons

also http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/j ... etine.html

Oh, I just put an article on the general topics forum...I think it's helped my husband....but his depression, not his motor skills.