Posted by Chloe on February 25, 2002, at 10:30:17
In reply to Re: Too many meds for bp 2?/neurontin dosing » Chloe, posted by JohnX2 on February 24, 2002, at 20:22:02
> Personally I might get some anxiety just trying to keep
> track of all those medicines.John,
Yes, this does cause some anxiety! I have to write everything down, so I know i have taken all that I is prescribed...My memory can't be relied on when I am juggling 6 different meds.
> As far as the neurontin goes, I think the concensus opinion
> on this board will be that a 3x a day dosing is required to
> keep the medicine from being "bumpy". The medicine is metabolized
> very quickly through the kidney.I think I figured out why adding the lithium has decreased the half life of Nuerontin, that seemed to be extended by the depakote.
The lithium increases diuresis, so I imagine that the Neurontin is getting washed out faster...Humm that must be the reason. So I need to go back to the TID dosing that I was on before I started the depakote (Depakote seemed to increase N half life. Because I was finding I was not needing my mid day dose. I would just completely forget about it, because my body wasn't calling for it.). Wow, thanks for helping the lightbulb go off in my head!
> Do you take a multiple dosing of Diazepam? I'm not
> sure on the 1/2 life of that medicine. I take Klonopin
> 2 times a day and this insures that the medicines maintains
> a consistent level in my body.Diazapam has quite a long half life. But I take 2.5 mgs am, 2.5 mgs evening prn, and 5 mgs hs. You are right, that a smooth level of benzos is very important.
> Generally I would say it is ok to juggle a lot of medicines.
> I'm a little suspicious that you would want to have them
> circulating in and out of your bodies during different times
> of the day. Some medicines only require once a day dosing
> (like maybe celexa), so it probably doesn't matter when you
> take it. But other medicines like neurontin are important.
> I don't remember about Depakote. But if the standard regimen
> requires multiple daily dosing and your pdoc has you just
> taking a little at night, I think that is odd.My pdoc seems to think that low doses of depakote (under 500 mgs) can be taken all at bedtime, esp since it's supposed to help with sleep. I believe the half life of dep. is about 14-20 hours. So I think after you achieve your steady state of a particular dose, one time dosing is fine. Though, I might consider breaking it into BID since I do NOT find it helps me sleep, unlike most people.
> Being bipolar (as I am) its best to try to keep
> a solid base of medicines in the brain around the
> clock instead of trying to shuffle different medicines
> in and out. I don't think there is anything wrong with
> trying to keep a small dash of a lot of medicines in the
> head as long as they are around the clock. This is
> just my philosophy and others may disagree.Thank you for sharing your opinion. And generally speaking I totally agree. I think I will tweek the timing of some of my dosings, and see if I can smooth out my day a bit. Thanks..
Chloe
poster:Chloe
thread:95352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020222/msgs/95428.html