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Re: Dopamine agonists » Michael Bell

Posted by not exactly on March 5, 2003, at 13:44:19

In reply to Re: Dopamine agonists, posted by Michael Bell on March 5, 2003, at 10:59:53

> Regarding upregulation - interestingly, in people with Parkinson's disease, studies have shown that as the number of dopamine cells gets lower, the brain upregulates the number of receptors to compensate. However, eventually the number of cells get so low (80% reduction) that even having a higher number of receptors doesn't help. So there is probably a way to increase the number of dopamine receptors, but safety is a big issue.

I sometimes worry about Parkinson's. I have no symptoms of the disease yet, but it concerns me that most of the meds that have dramatically helped me are in fact primarily for Parkinson's rather than depression or SP. Do I have the so-called "Parkinson personality" (the description fits like a glove, see http://www.parkinson.org/pr24.htm and http://www.geocities.com/parkinsonforum/hypothesis/overview.htm), and am I therefore at risk for an early onset of the disease itself? I wonder if drugs that are neuroprotective and reputedly slow the advance of Parkinson's, such as selegiline (low dosage), might have a long-term benefit.

The up/down regulation issue also reminds me of the triumphs and tragedies in the famous "Awakenings" story.

BTW, I responded well to Klonopin, but never tried it very long, or as a monotherapy. My pdoc switched me from Klonopin to Neurontin because he was concerned about the addiction potential of benzo's. Neurontin helped in much the same ways as Klonopin, but never as well, and with some subtle but worrisome long-tem effects. I've reported on my reaction to Neurontin in another thread [http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030125/msgs/137900.html].

- Bob


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030301/msgs/206155.html