A question about drug tolerance

janal

I become tolerant of meds quickly and upping the dose dose not help. Neither does stopping the drug for over a year and trying again. Can anything be done about this?

bobze

If you're becoming "tolerant" to multiple drugs very quickly it probably isn't an issue with tolerance, rather with the liver's P450 system being chronically induced or easily excitable. Tolerance is normally a "slower" process and you should think about it happening at the level of the drugs target. Individuals vary greatly in the amount of hepatic metabolism that drugs undergo.

If these are necessary prescribed drugs, I'd talk to your doctor about it. He/She can try different regimes to improve drug availability. If its for recreational drugs or OTCs your probably SOL.

janal

Thanks for the info. Although I have stopped responding to pain relievers and allergy meds this year after working fine for years, my main problem is prescription meds for depression. I've tried about a dozen and only had a positive response to three. Nardil and later Welbutrin each gave me a month of feeling much better. Almost overnight they stopped working. My latest drug was an anti-narcolepsy med modafinil added to seemingly useless Cybalta & Welbutrin. The first two days I had a lot more energy, then nothing. When my dose was doubled, I slept more than usual. My psychiatrist only has about two more ideas: dextroamphetamine or the Emsam patch. Did you mean to try different anti-depressants that might agree with my hepatic metabolism or is there something that I could take (or do) that could change my hepatic metabolism? Feel free to dumb down your response. A GED and ECT don't make for deep thinking.