Posted by 3 Beer Effect on January 30, 2002, at 23:36:02
I was recently taking Neurontin 900 mg/day but it hasn't done anything for my social phobia, only seems to make it worse. I stay in the house all the time, somnolent, drowsy & much more irritable when on the neurontin. Some studies said it might help with social phobia but they only got a 32% response rate with a 14% placebo response rate.
My old psychiatrist thinks I am Bipolar but I think that may be wrong- stimulants, especially Ritalin, work well for me with no mania & I think I have ADD instead (the only time I ever had mania is when I took Zoloft 100 mg/day & also when I got drunk at college I would act like a manic idiot, partying till 7 in the morning. Assuming he is right & I do turn out to be Bipolar, they will probably put me on a different mood stablizer since Neurontin doesn't seem to help me.
Topomax looks very interesting as a mood stablizer but I don't know much about it. On paper, it looks like it would help with social phobia since it potentiates GABA & various other mechanisms that alcohol (which I still think is the best social phobia/anxiolytic drug ever) effects, which the benzos also do but through a different mechanism. Is Topomax the non-benzodiazpine, non-tolerance inducing cure for social phobia that everyone has been looking for? Does it make you "dumb" & drowsy all of the time so you can't get studying or other work done- I found Neurontin to have this effect on me? Is Topomax have dangerous side effects to you liver like Depakote & lithium or is it relatively non-toxic like Neurontin?
poster:3 Beer Effect
thread:92308
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020124/msgs/92308.html