Posted by bleauberry on March 27, 2010, at 19:21:18
In reply to Re: Severe anhedonia...I can't live like this anym » bleauberry, posted by Economist on March 25, 2010, at 20:53:15
> bleauberry,
>
> Did you have anhedonia too? How long did it last and what caused it (depression or negative symptoms)?Yes, it was (is) my primary symptom. Better in the last year, but still a heavy crutch. I can identify things that may have caused it, but who knows:
Longterm SSRI usage.
Amalgam fillings and mercury toxicity.
Lyme.>
> I think I have been excessively targeting dopamine for the past three months to no avail. I have tried Wellbutrin, low-dose amisulpride, Adderall, and now low dose EMSAM/seligiline. The supplements I have tried are glycine, pregnenolone, panax ginseng, NAC, and now DLPA.Glycine is more in the family of GABA, so I can see why that didn't help. Wellbutrin, yuck. Adderall, mmm, with an ssri sometimes good not always, by itself usually not. The only reliable gingseng I am aware of is actually not a true ginseng...Siberian Ginseng (eleuthero)...but it takes several months to do its thing. NAC is primarily involved in the toxicity cleanup department. DLPA will go to both dopamine and NE, as well as preserving the length of time the endorphins circulate. But, it all depends on whether our bodies metabolize it properly and manufacture the stuff the way a textbook says it should. That's a huge assumption. A lot of things can go wrong in that process. Precursors only work when all the downstream factories are working like they are supposed to.
Amisulpride should have helped, but maybe the dose was too high. I know the doses are usually talked about as being 50mg-100mg. Me, I find anything over 25mg is not helpful, under is.
All that said, the one biggest success I had against anhedonia was Savella. Huge difference. So forget the theory stuff and the textbook stuff. NE is a big player, and since savella also hits serotonin a little, that also plays into the picture. Since it also blocks NE in a part of the brain where no dopamine reuptake receptors exist and dopamine is taken up by the NE receptors, savella increases dopamine also. I think the important point is...it isn't this neuro or that neuro, it's all of them in concert...at the right balance. Things are too complicated to analyze. We as humans know only a fraction of what there is to know.
>
> I can't see how norepinephrine would be factor in this anhedonia. I don't feel sluggish or lack energy. I just can't feel emotions and have no interest in any thing, any person, any activity, or any thoughts.Not feeling sluggish doesn't mean you don't have a NE problem. There is epinephrine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline, just for starters, all similar but different, different roles. You could have one or two working just fine for physical stuff and one or two working bad for psychological stuff. Add to that the interplay with the serotonin, dopamine, and opioid systems, and well, you just gotta throw the theory book out the window.
poster:bleauberry
thread:940577
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100318/msgs/941119.html