Posted by Optimist on February 7, 2005, at 11:18:30
In reply to Re: Eliminating Parnate poop-out?, posted by EERRIICC on February 7, 2005, at 6:23:31
> Sorry to be so vague. Parnate stops working and then I have to go off it for awhile (to try another drug or something) then when I go back on it, it works again for a few months. I have never tried stopping it for a couple days every week on a regular basis. Also, Parnate only begins to work for me at doses over 90mg. I have heard that the drug changes structure or mechanism of action at high doses.
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> Optimist: your information about dopaminergic drugs is very interesting, is there any place I can find more info.?
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> Thanks for your help!Eric,
Do you have a bipolar dx by any chance? I've heard that's a common reason for AD poopout. AD's can exacerbate bipolar switches. If you've never experienced bipolar features before AD's, it's possible an AD may potentiate a small biological tendency towards it. Just a thought.
Adding a lower dose of lithium may help with the poopout. You wouldn't have to go to the extreme blood concentrations needed for full blown bipolar. A concentration of 0.4-0.8 mmol/L, may be sufficient. It's low enough to not get a lot of the nasty side effects, and it may even increase the AD effect of the Parnate.
I'm considering adding some low dose lithium to my regimand if I experience any poopout on Parnate myself. The Parnate starts in a week, once my Prozac is fully washed out. I've often wondered if I had some mild form of bipolar as I seem to have seasonal changes to my depression. Spring and fall seem to be my best times of the year.
I'm not too sure if the weekends off regimand would help with Parnate. Since it's bound to MAO for around 2 weeks or so, or at least a week anyways, I doubt taking a weekend off would make any difference. The weekends off is usually only recommend for very low doses of drugs anyways. If you're on a high dose of something, a weekend off isn't going to be enough time for it to recover. For example the doses recommended for this for Selegiline is around 1mg-5mg max during the week. Anything more and you'd need much more time to recover, thus negating a lot of point behind it. There's not much use to being off just as much as you're on or more so.
Regarding my info on dopaminergic drugs cycling, I can't really point you in any specific direction. It's basically from years of reading on the subject. One book that went in to it in some detail is "Hormonal Health" by Dr. Michael Colgan. He advocates low dose Selegiline to improve the dopaminergic system for emotional health as well as for cognitive longevity towards old age. I've also seen the 5 on, 2 off protocol for bodybuilding supplements that work on dopamine/testosterone production, if you want to go on something long term. Another option is 3 weeks on, 1 off, that they advocate. I wouldn't recommend that for Parnate though either.
p.s. How did the pdoc search go in the GTA? Did you find a good one you were looking for?
Brian
poster:Optimist
thread:453879
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050207/msgs/454305.html