Posted by dbbs on February 14, 2014, at 18:17:33
In reply to Adderall add another dopamine agonist?, posted by b2chica on February 6, 2014, at 16:13:34
You may or may not have luck getting a dopamine agonist prescribed by your doctor. Some papers or research supporting your case may make your case well, though I've had doctors who would ignore anything I've had to say to them and would categorically deny anything I asked for simply because they're the doctor and I had no business asking them to do something a way that they didn't like. Unfortunately, I was stuck with one of those doctors during court ordered outpatient treatment for 6 months; I couldn't fire him and I couldn't change clinics. Fortunately, afterwards rather than just fire him from me, I also helped to get him fired because of how rude and inappropriate he was with me.
I don't know much about dopamine agonists, anyhow, but I do have some suggestions for things that increase dopamine.
-L-Dopa supplements are easily purchased legally online - at least in the US, though as it's a supplement you really can never really be sure of the quality. Not exactly a dopamine agonist, but like 5-HTP it's made into dopamine (and norepinephrine and epinephrine) after crossing into the brain.
-You also may want to try Stattera/atomoxetine. While it's a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, I've read that some dopamine is transported by the norepinephrine transporter, and that Strattera has been shown to increase levels of dopamine in parts of the brain.
-Though potentially risky and problematic, a low dose of selegiline (no more than 10mg/day), either oral or the lowest Emsam patch would increase levels of dopamine... So long as you stick to MAO-B inhibition only, but you may have to cut down on or quit the Adderall because MAO-B inhibition strongly potentiates the Adderall. Selegiline, especially oral selegiline, is partially transformed into l-methamphetamine and l-amphetamine - the second of which does exist as part of the salt mixture of Adderall. These are not really pleasant metabolites to have in your system, either. Others may have had better luck with oral selegiline, but when I tried it I found it extremely dysphoric and agitating, and I'm fairly certain my own levels of dopamine are pretty low, so you probably wouldn't like it.
I have had pretty terrible luck myself with the poly-pharmacy augmentation of antidepressants. They have generally only made things worse for me rather than better. I think my problem has mainly been that I've never really found a med or combination of meds that has worked well for my depression. Clonazepam has worked great for my Panic Disorder/some PTSD symptoms and Dexedrine worked amazingly well for ADHD - though the doctor made me go off of it recently as I've started Nardil. Nardil being the reason I've been lurking in this forum, though I thought I'd come out of the woodwork to answer a question.
This isn't to say that augmenting with additional meds won't work for you. It has worked well for many people and may work great for you. Just keep in mind that with each med you add, the risk of side-effects and interactions between meds does go up, and with several medications it can become hard to separate out which medication is causing what, good or bad.
poster:dbbs
thread:1060352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140214/msgs/1060688.html