Posted by Emme on December 24, 2005, at 19:53:55
In reply to Re: ADHD: Memantine-Emme, posted by mike99 on December 24, 2005, at 18:56:57
Hi.
> You mentioned Aricept helped some with focus and clarity of thought--- do you see any of these benefits with memantine?
No. Not specifically. Actually, my brain had a foggy feeling at a higher dose (it's okay at my current dose). But YMMV, especially depending on what else you're taking with it. It's been a good drug for for me for depression.
I would still like to be better focused, but my cognitive issues have improved. I think it's because:
1) I take less medicine overall than I used to. I take several drugs, but mostly small doses. Having found good drugs to augment Lamictal, I was able to lower my dose of Lamictal.
2) Less depression = brain works better.
3) Less anxiety = brain works better. At the moment, I mostly use xanax to combat anxiety, and it doesn't seem to zone me out.
4) Less fatigue and better motivation due to Abilify = brain works better.
I would have continued with Aricept, but my liver enzymes were raised and my GP recommended we d/c it. However, they weren't raised that much and we've since decided that if my regimen goes south, we'll think about retrying Aricept and monitor liver enzymes.
At this point, I also suspect that my focus may improve with practice. During the time that I had a lot of brain fog, I got discouraged and got out of the habit of even trying. Now that things are better, I think I need to just start making myself be disciplined.
emme
poster:Emme
thread:591702
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051221/msgs/591975.html