Posted by Tomatheus on August 14, 2013, at 18:15:57
In reply to decades of dep, posted by alchemy on August 14, 2013, at 14:02:41
Hi Alchemy,
I'm sorry to hear about the predicament that you're in. I did want to make you aware of a medication that I just came across called nimodipine. The medication, which is sold under the trade name Nimotop, is a calcium-channel blocker that seems to have the ability to raise levels of a chemical called somatostatin. CSF somatostatin levels have been found to be inversely correlated with sleep time (Rubinow et al., 1983), and low levels of the chemical have been implicated in depressive illness and even in affective illness with ultra-rapid cycling (Pazzaglia et al., 1993). I know that you said that you experience rapid cycling, and if you also tend to sleep for longer than most, then you might be a good candidate for nimodipine. I'm thinking about asking my psychiatrist about nimodipine for myself because I experience hypersomnia with long sleep times and because some of my supplement responses seem to point to the possibility of having low somatostatin levels, but I want to give vitamin D a fair trial first because I have insufficient levels of the vitamin.
I'll understand if you don't want to try nimodipine for any reason, but I thought I'd make you aware of the medication in case you might want to try it (and that's assuming that you haven't already tried it).
I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that the decade ahead for you will be one of remission, instead of one of unremitting affective illness.
T.
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REFERENCES
Pazzaglia, P.J., Post, R.M., Kettler, T.A., George, M.S., & Marangell, L.B. (1993). Preliminary controlled trial of nimidipine in ultra-rapid cycling affective dysregulation. Psychiatry Research, 49, 257-272. Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8177920
Rubinow, D.R., Gold, P.W., Post, R.M., Ballenger, J.C., Cowdry, R., Bollinger, J., et al. (1983). CSF somatostatin in affective illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 409-412. Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6132592
Conditions:
* chronic fatigue, hypersomnia, and related symptoms
* schizoaffective disorderTaking Abilify, niacin, vit D
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