Posted by karaS on October 10, 2004, at 23:11:26
In reply to Re: Parnate Experience » karaS, posted by King Vultan on October 10, 2004, at 19:36:46
Thanks, Todd
I think I'm more confused than ever. I guess I can't completely draw any conclusions from your experiences since we have significant differences in medication effects and successes.
I have taken selegiline, Ritalin, Rhodiola and Perika brand of SJW. All are supposed to be very stimulating and have significant dopaminergic activity. They all put me to sleep. I am convinced at this point that I could take methamphetamine and fall asleep as well. However, when I took nortriptyline, I was so energized and activated. When I took Provigil, it didn't put me to sleep at all. It had very little effect in that respect. All of this makes me wonder if your problem isn't more to do with NE? I suppose if you tried selegiline or Ritalin or another stimulant, you'd know for certain.
I'm also confused as to why you think it's possible to down regulate the DA autoreceptors when Dr. Jay Goldstein and my pdoc both told me that there are no medications as of yet to treat hypersensitive dopamine autoreceptors. There is supposedly at least one that's in testing now however. I know you said previously that you thought certain ADs could act like the SSRIs and downregulate dopamine in the same way that those meds do with respect to serotonin. But then why do the 2 doctors say that there are no medications yet to treat this condition?
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm jumping all over you here, I am just trying to understand...
At any rate, I'm really glad that you're having so much success with Parnate. Positive AD effect, better motivation and concentration and you can exercise too! What more could you ask for? Sounds like heaven to me.
K
> It's neutral for me as far as stimulation vs. sedation. However, since I tend to be rather anergic and lethargic in an unmedicated state, I suppose it has been activating in that respect. It is definitely helping both my concentration and motivation and seems pretty effective as an antidepressant. I've been at 50 mg/day for a week now, and on this dosage increase, I haven't suffered the significant bouts of depression I experienced going from 20 to 30 and 30 to 40, well at least not yet, anyway. Perhaps my hypersensitive autoreceptors were mostly down regulated by the two previous dosage increases. I am able to exercise much easier on it than I was on Nardil, and it seems to have no negative impacts in that area. I took my heart monitor out with me while running 6+ miles today, and it was mostly reading between 140-160 while running at a good but not overly strenuous pace that probably would not have been possible on the Nardil.
>
> The drugs I've tried that I've suffered excessive sedation on were Provigil, Strattera, and nortriptyline. Nortriptyline also induced some amount of depression at first, and trazodone caused intolerable depression when I was on Nardil. I believe that in every case, this can be related to the issue of hypersensitive dopamine autoreceptors, as I believe all these drugs do have a secondary dopaminergic effect (nortriptyline and trazodone from blockading 5-HT2A receptors, the same as atypical antipsychotics do). I was thinking of perhaps trying the trazodone again at some point and see if it doesn't work better on Parnate. I expect it probably will, and if so, this would also tend to confirm the hypothesis that my dopamine autoreceptors have been effectively downregulated.
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> As for the other drugs I've had positive antidepressant responses to without unusual sedation, these would include Prozac, Effexor, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, desipramine, protriptyline, and Nardil.
>
> Todd
poster:karaS
thread:400754
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041007/msgs/401375.html