Posted by Mitch on September 6, 2001, at 10:38:49
In reply to Re: DOPAMINE - SP and Parkinsons Disease » Mitch, posted by kregpark@yahoo.com on September 6, 2001, at 1:29:54
> Mitch:
>
> Thanks for your input.
> You are the first I've come across on the Internet
> with both the SP and ADHD, but I wouldn't be
> surprised if many people have both. You mentioned
> mood swings and Cyclert helping that. Do you have
> bipolar also? I saw an abstract suggesting some
> possible strong similarities between bipolar
> and SP. Would make sense to me, both are very
> chronic disorders with the former clearly involving
> dopamine dysfunction and SP with strong evidence
> so far.
>Yes, bipolarII was my first diagnosis 20 years ago, rapid cycling (there wasn't any distinction back then I think-but that best describes it now). The SP/panic became prominent a few years later. I have always had ADHD problems all the way back to 2nd grade. Anyhow, the BPII was the *official* dx, until I started changing pdocs around in the last 3 or 4 years. Then it got changed to ADHD. That is when I tried Adderall 5mg AM with Neurontin (100mg 3xdaily)-nothing else. My cycling interestingly flattened out and *disappeared*. I got rather quiet and attentive. I slept a very regular 7 hours at nite. I couldn't get over how well I could *listen* and I suddenly had this ability to plan things out and execute them in a stepwise fashion and be patient with the process. Interestingly, I *lost* the ability to juggle 3 or 4 things simultaneously (albeit in a half-ass fashion). But I was always somewhat edgy on the pstim and complained about anxiety, I was also a little "cold" towards others as well. We tried adding a tiny dose (.5mg/day) of Risperdal to the mix and I got dystonia and gait disturbances and it got stopped, about that time also I started to panic and I couldn't tolerate being around anybody I was so uptight. Then I got a thyroid tumor-so the Adderall got stopped and I was put on big doses of benzos to quell the panic and my dx was changed to SP. The thyroid tumor might have been just coincidental-since I have a family history of thyroid cancer. Strange, but writing this just now I realize the first panic attack I had was right after my pdoc (18 years ago)gave me 25mg/day of thorazine to help with some anger I was having. I had been taking it for a few weeks, then I had to change shifts-my sleep schedule got interrupted and the panic got triggered. The last big bout of panic (2 years ago) also occurred within 2-3 weeks on a low dose of a dopamine antagonist(!) Sorry for rambling on, but there is definitely a connection there.
Mitch
poster:Mitch
thread:36517
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/77995.html