Posted by AndrewB on April 14, 2000, at 12:40:05
In reply to Wonderful French meds...Adrafinil + Amisulpride., posted by JohnL on April 14, 2000, at 3:57:09
Viva la France! Viva la John L! I am so happy for you John. You've been such a long suffering soul. I am sure that I am just one of many on this board who has watched your seemingly unending frustrations and hoped that at some time you would get a break. Well, small miracles, it has finally happened and to such a wonderful person.
I could go into a diatribe on the injustices of how some good medicines aren’t available on this side of the Atlantic, but it would serve others better to say that both amisulpride and adrafinil are available with or without a prescription at a reasonable price. Also note that it is perfectly legal to import these drugs for your personal use and it is perfectly legal for your psychiatrist to prescribe these drugs. Is it ethical for a doctor to prescribe a drug for which the FDA has not approved? Ethics are a matter of personal interpretation but isn’t the doctor’s highest ethical priority to provide the best medicines and medical care to his patient. FDA approval means that a drug has passed through rigorous testing but lack of FDA approval doesn’t mean the FDA disapproves of a drug. It does indicate however that the doctor and the patient must be extra vigilant as to the safety and appropriateness of the medicines, whether it is a drug from overseas or one that is being used for a purpose other than what it was approved for. By the way John, I guess you had to go overseas and try the French meds because you used up all of ours!
One message I take from your experience here is something that you have been talking about a lot lately; individual body chemistries differ so don’t try to do too much guessing as to what will work, rather be willing to go through trials with a lot of drugs and do the trials as quickly as is reasonable. Success is often only found after much ‘trial’ and error.
Now I thought that adrafinil and reboxetine were so closely related that a failure with one would necessarily mean failure with the other. But you have shown this not to be true. Bruce, another poster, also confirmed this when after trying adrafinil and finding no mood benefit experienced a wonderful mood enhancement with reboxetine.
The point is, again, people have individual body chemistries, so one just needs to give trials to one med after another. I believe one advantage with adrafinil, being an adrenerigic agonist, is that its onset and washout period are fairly rapid and a trial can be accomplished fairly rapidly. Tell me if I am wrong in this assumption John.John, I do think you should try the adrafinil without the amisulpride for 4 or 5 days to see if the amisulpride is providing anything for you. If for no other reason than to save you money. But don’t be surprised if you find that you need the amisulpride. I have found with the reboxetine and amisulpride that, while the reboxetine is in good part the ‘battery’ that supplies the energy to the mood effect, it is the amisulpride that supplies the wonderful color to the effect.
One final thing, John, please don't leave us now that your all well and better. You are still needed!
Talk with you later,
AndrewB
poster:AndrewB
thread:29956
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/29993.html