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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 15 of 15. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
My memory has been poor and declining for years. I have also been taking meds for anxiety for years.
Which of these is most likely to be causing my memory loss?
A. Nardil (45mg/day)
B. Klonopin (.5 mg/day)
C. Ambien (10 mg/day)
D. Anxiety itself
E. Something else
Posted by Phillipa on January 1, 2015, at 9:21:06
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
David don't let it be the benzos. If so we are all or lots of us in a bad situation. Phillipa
Posted by SLS on January 1, 2015, at 9:32:19
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
> My memory has been poor and declining for years. I have also been taking meds for anxiety for years.
>
> Which of these is most likely to be causing my memory loss?
>
> A. Nardil (45mg/day)
> B. Klonopin (.5 mg/day)
> C. Ambien (10 mg/day)
> D. Anxiety itself
> E. Something elseI'll let others comment on the deleterious effects (if any) of your medication regime on memory. I would just point out that depression becomes more of an illness of cognitive and memory impairments as one ages. I would consider increasing the Nardil to 60 mg/day to assess its value as an antidepressant. If your depression improves, it is likely that your memory will improve as well. Chronic anxiety creates the type of stress that can impact negatively the hippocampus - a brain structure involved in memory function. The bottom line is that it is very possible that continual depression and anxiety are causing your progressive memory impairments, even in the absence of drug side effects.
- Scott
Posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 9:59:05
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss? » DavidLA, posted by SLS on January 1, 2015, at 9:32:19
I forgot to mention:
F. Little sleep (4-6 hours/night)
I also wonder if the REM suppression from Nardil plays a part in memory issues.
Posted by Lou Pilder on January 1, 2015, at 14:16:15
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss? » DavidLA, posted by SLS on January 1, 2015, at 9:32:19
> > My memory has been poor and declining for years. I have also been taking meds for anxiety for years.
> >
> > Which of these is most likely to be causing my memory loss?
> >
> > A. Nardil (45mg/day)
> > B. Klonopin (.5 mg/day)
> > C. Ambien (10 mg/day)
> > D. Anxiety itself
> > E. Something else
>
> I'll let others comment on the deleterious effects (if any) of your medication regime on memory. I would just point out that depression becomes more of an illness of cognitive and memory impairments as one ages. I would consider increasing the Nardil to 60 mg/day to assess its value as an antidepressant. If your depression improves, it is likely that your memory will improve as well. Chronic anxiety creates the type of stress that can impact negatively the hippocampus - a brain structure involved in memory function. The bottom line is that it is very possible that continual depression and anxiety are causing your progressive memory impairments, even in the absence of drug side effects.
>
>
> - ScottFriends,
If you are considering being a discussant here or just interested in the claims made by posters here, I am requesting that you read the following article.
To see this article, bring up Google and type in:
[ Chris Kresser, the side of antidepressants ]
If you are a parent and are trying to decide as to drug your child in collaboration with a psychiatrist/doctor, this article could be used to start a dialog here in order for you to get the whole truth instead of just one person's advocating of mind-altering drugs to somehow cure or treat your child of depression and such. Be advised that I am trying to save lives here and prevent life-ruining conditions and addictions all the time working under prohibitions to me here from Mr. Hsiung that if those prohibitions were not made to me, I think that lives would not have been lost here, addictions could not have come to readers here, life-ruining conditions could have been avoided and readers could not be so easily persuaded to take these drugs being allowed to be promoted here that could induce suicidal thinking and thinking to commit mass-murder. The question is as to if the drugs can do this to a human being and there is much research to show what these chemicals in these drugs promoted here can do to a person's mind.
Lou
Posted by linkadge on January 1, 2015, at 14:37:43
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
Its probably a lack of REM sleep induced by the combination of the drugs.
MAOI's can dramatically supress REM sleep. This will supress cholinergic / memory consolidation during sleep. The ambien and clonazepam might improve overall insomnia, but not rem sleep.
I assume you have taken other antidepressants without success?
Parnate might be a slightly better option than Nardil from a cognition standpoint. However, it may not be as good for anxiety.
Linkadge
Posted by b2chica on January 1, 2015, at 15:11:11
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
first regarding meds:
1. Klonapin always makes me dumb as a box of hammers if i take it longer than a week.
2. high levels of the 'fight or flight' hormones will affect memory so the anxiety itself will affect you
3. also depression can and ADHD can also affect short term memory.i have not experience with Nardil.
and ambien would affect memory only while you are on it. has short half life and shouldnt affect most day time. However if you are taking higher than normal dose or for long period of time, this definately would affect memory.
does it seem more like short term memory issues? or long term memory issues.
if its the latter i might suggest other issues going on.
if short term, could be any of the above mentioned. (including ambien as folks respond differently to meds?
> My memory has been poor and declining for years. I have also been taking meds for anxiety for years.
>
> Which of these is most likely to be causing my memory loss?
>
> A. Nardil (45mg/day)
> B. Klonopin (.5 mg/day)
> C. Ambien (10 mg/day)
> D. Anxiety itself
> E. Something else
>
>
Posted by SLS on January 1, 2015, at 17:05:08
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss?, posted by linkadge on January 1, 2015, at 14:37:43
My memory was never better than when I experienced a complete remission of depression during which there was a cessation of dreaming resulting from taking a combination of Parnate + desipramine. I experienced potent REM rebound dreaming when I stopped treatment as per doctor's orders. I was also taking Halcion and Ativan for sleep at the time.
MAOIs no longer stop me from dreaming, although dreaming can occur during stages of sleep other than REM.
- Scott
Posted by Phillipa on January 1, 2015, at 17:38:46
In reply to Lou's response and request to readers-dkpsyd, posted by Lou Pilder on January 1, 2015, at 14:16:15
I do not believe we are talking about a child here so ignoring what you wrote. P
Posted by Phillipa on January 1, 2015, at 17:40:58
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss?, posted by SLS on January 1, 2015, at 17:05:08
Why did that doc ruin a good thing for you. I'd like to smack him !!! P
Posted by alexandra_k on January 1, 2015, at 18:15:20
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss? » SLS, posted by Phillipa on January 1, 2015, at 17:40:58
what kind of memory loss?
cognitive psychologists like to distinguish 3 phases of memory... encoding. storage. retrieval. memory problems can arise from problems with one (or more) of those stages...
encoding problems can be due to problems with concentration / attention / rehearsal.
depends a bit on the kind of memory... this is still (to the best of my knowledge) rather a murky area... but there are different kinds of memories and people can have problems with one of these areas but not others. memory of skill (e.g., remembering how to hit a tennis ball). semantic memory (e.g., remembering story kinds of things). episodic memory (a sort of emotional picture memory e.g., remembering where you were / what you were doing when you first heard about the twin towers). picture memory (e.g., remembering the shopping list).
the process of encoding and / or storage and / or retrieval can be different for all of these...
i like to think of memory as being like a muscle. encoding (in particular) takes (sometimes, at least) considerable conscious effort. to go over and over stuff... to get it 'stuck in there'. if we don't use it... it atrophies.
my mother keeps on about how her memory is bad... but she won't even try and encode stuff, anymore, because she is convinced her memory is bad so there is no point in trying.
you can improve your memory through practice (within limits).
lack of sleep will probably mess you up big time... the jury is still out... but sleep seems to play a big part in consolidating memory... in helping shift it from a more temporary storage area into something longer term. some people think that that fairly much is the function of sleep... REM sleep... a process of working through / consolidating...
how are your senses doing? if you need glasses / hearing aids etc then you might have problems appropirately attending to / encoding that kind of information...
Posted by baseball55 on January 1, 2015, at 20:15:53
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
> My memory has been poor and declining for years. I have also been taking meds for anxiety for years.
>
> Which of these is most likely to be causing my memory loss?If your memory has been declining for years, might it not make sense to consult a doctor and have tests done of your cognitive function? This could also entail an assessment of your medications.
Posted by Lou Pilder on January 2, 2015, at 6:42:13
In reply to Re: Lou's response and request to readers-dkpsyd » Lou Pilder, posted by Phillipa on January 1, 2015, at 17:38:46
> I do not believe we are talking about a child here so ignoring what you wrote. P
Friends,
You could be led to believe here that the drugs being promoted here could be safe for you to take, and that it is possible that those drugs are not responsible for the misery that members post here about that they are enduring and that the "illness" is what causes, let's say, memory loss. There is so much research to show what you can use to make your own determination as to any claim that these drugs do or do not cause memory loss, which can be a result of brain damage from these drugs being promoted here.
Here is a video that I would like for you to view, by a psychiatrist that could offer information so that you could make a more-informed decision as to drug your child or not in collaboration with a psychiatrist/doctor, or to drug yourself or a loved one in your care.
The doctor in this video is an expert. Yet today, it has been revealed to me what could be beyond what you see in the video that could save your life, prevent life-ruining conditions and addictions and lead you to a new life, free at last, and to sing a new song. The revelation comes from a Jewish perspective and is prohibited by Mr. Hsiung for me to post here.
Here is the video. To see this video, bring up Google and type in:
[ youtube, luKsQaj0hzs ]
the character after the "j" is a zero, not the letter "O"
Posted by phidippus on January 6, 2015, at 15:18:56
In reply to Re: What is causing my memory loss?, posted by b2chica on January 1, 2015, at 15:11:11
Klonopin is the most likely to affect short and long term memory and cause problems with both over the long haul.
Anxiety itself can affect memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_stress_on_memory
Eric
Posted by Zyprexa on January 17, 2015, at 0:55:48
In reply to What is causing my memory loss?, posted by DavidLA on January 1, 2015, at 8:18:03
I'm going to go with B. Its similar to alcohol so might impair memory.
This is the end of the thread.
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