Posted by manowar on May 16, 2002, at 8:36:41
In reply to Re: Pressor effects and response » manowar, posted by IsoM on May 16, 2002, at 2:59:56
IsoM,
Thanks for your timely response as always.
Psychopharmacology is quite interesting, or shall we say quite baffling, eh?To answer your question about the Adrafinil:
In hindsight, I don’t think it really pooped out, I may just have overestimated the anti-depression effects of the drug.I was doing pretty well for a time, but I started cycling down more and more frequently and for longer periods of time. I also wasn't getting much help with my 54 mg daily of Concerta for my ADD (of course, lack of concentration is also a symptom of depression). I never did stop taking the Adrafinil, because I still felt that it played an important role in my drug therapy (increased ability to socialize-even though depressed, also it seems that it does enhance my ability to concentrate a bit). But, because the 54 mg a day of Concerta wasn’t helping me anymore, I started doubling my dose to 108 mg in the morning. This clearly, was too high a dose, but my doctor was on vacation at the time and I was functioning a hell of a lot better on 108 than 54, though it did seem to make me feel cranky. But, I called my doctor and made an appointment (whom I wasn't due to see for another month or two).
Anyway, I never have stopped taking the Adrafinil. When I visited with my doctor (he's an ADD specialist and an expert in psych drugs-not a shrink), I expressed my doubt in the Adrafinil and he wisely (I think) told me that he thought the drug was indeed beneficial and wanted me to continue taking it. So I do. Secondly, I told him about doubling my dose of Concerta, and he decided to increase my morning dose to 72 mg which seems to be perfect. Unfortunately, the Concerta effect seems to fizzle around 5-7 PM, therefore he added the Focalin (10 mg) around 5 PM. The Focalin is great. To me it is worth the extra expense over plain old Methylphenidate (Ritalin) because it seems to work better, and it certainly last longer for me (4-5 hrs as opposed to Ritalin – 2-3 hours). But I’ve only been taking it for a week and a half, so we’ll see.
With the complex nature of my problems, it seems that no ‘one pill’ or even two or three is going to complete my drug regimen. At the present, I take Wellbutrin, Klonipin, Adrafinil, Concerta ( augmented with a late afternoon dose of Focalin), along with the new flavor of the month- the tricyclic Nortriptyline. I hate having to take 5 drugs daily!
I’m currently on a damn good upswing (don’t worry, I’m not a bipolar- just a cyclothymic depressive). I just had my latest swing about two days ago, and I hope that at least some of the reason why I’m feeling this well is because of the Nortryp that I just started taking a week and a half ago. But I doubt that very much because I’m on such a substandard therapeutic dose (25 mg a day), and because it has only been a week and a half. But one never knows, does one?
Again IsoM, it’s nice to hear from you, and thanks as always for your articulate and thoughtful insights. BTW: Do you have another pseudo-name other than IsoM? And, I thought that Cam was a lady, and that she quit posting several months ago because of some futile dispute with an idiotic flamer. No? Do tell… I love gossip:)
Tim
poster:manowar
thread:106073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020510/msgs/106627.html