Antidepressants - Venlafaxine Withdrawal

Bacterial Infection & Serotonin

6.2 Bacterial Infection

The patient had developed a bacterial infection in the brain/nervous system. The bacteria were destroying the serotonin.

A Neurological Profile Test was carried out on the patient’s urine using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for the reasons given above. The test was carried out by Neurotech International Limited (44 (0) 1202 510910, email dntaylor@btconnect.com ).

The HPLC output for a typically depressed patient shows low levels of serotonin precursor, low levels of serotonin and low levels of serotonin non-toxic derivatives. In this case the HPLC test showed the neurological profile to be not just abnormal but pathological. Bacteria were present in the nervous system.

It showed the serotonin precursor was nearly normal but the serotonin level itself was close to zero and the non-toxic derivatives were very high. Therefore the serotonin was being produced but rapidly destroyed. High levels of neurotoxins were also identified along with an inflammation marker. This suggested that there was bacteriological infection destroying the serotonin. Rather than treat the patient with random antibiotics a programme of drug reduction and immune system boosting was followed.