Posted by Jay2112 on July 6, 2023, at 13:24:59
In reply to Re: Many drugs likely cause changes to dopamine system, posted by SLS on July 6, 2023, at 11:52:32
Hi Scott,
I hope all is well with you. Interesting how all of these meds come and go in our lives. You seem to have some great, and lucky experiences. (Experiments...really.) I take a very small quantity of bromocriptine, and my body seems to have gotten used of it, so I don't have much nausea anymore.(knock on wood!). I don't think it is an ideal drug, but I seem to have fit it into my drug therapy well. We will have to see. Dopamine agonists seem to need to be switched around once in awhile. I don't respond to Wellbutrin very well...it's norepinephrine agonism turns me into a big hot mess. All's I do is sweat on it...and feel unease and horrible.
Nortriptyline works for me at times, but I seem to develop bad nightmares on it, though that might change with my lithium. I seem to be fine with this current drug regimen.
I guess I am hoping to protect my dopamine system, since I use amphetamines for both depression and regular add. Also, for any blemishes caused by both antipsychotics and heavy serotonin based drugs. I feel asymptomatic, not always, but most often. But I feel if we are going to take drugs, we should be reaching for the best, but just by human nature, we are always going to get days where we feel not so good. I take my meds consistently, and only tinker once in awhile, meaning rarely, and with my pdoc's approval.
I often think of how important dopamine is when I get dystonia, and all of the other antipsychotic side effects. Not nice....not fun....just hell!
So, I have learnt the need to not constantly harm my dopamine system.Best,
Jay> In 1983, I began researching affective disorders at the Rutgers medical school library. After poking around there for a few weeks, I proposed to the clinical research division of psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian (now Coumbia-Cornell) a theory that I had devised suggesting a role for dopamine in the pathogenesis of depression - especially in bipolar disorder. After failing 7 or 8 antidepressant trials, I asked them for Wellbutrin, which was not yet available. Compassionate use? Harrison and Quitkin said that they would consider it if I were to go for 6 months of psychotherapy. So, I asked about bromocriptine. Harrison said to me, "That's fine if you want to throw up all day", and laughed at me. I left and found someone who was working with Wellbutrin on an open-label basis.
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> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/408861/
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> Today:
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> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=dopamine+hypothesis+depression&size=50
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> In 1983, I could find only one author who proposed a role for dopamine in depression. I felt vindicated. Considering that a role for dopamine had been proposed in the medical literature by 1977, I really should not have been dismissed so quickly. I had my eye on a drug called nomifensine. It was described as a potent dopamine reuptake inhibitors in addition to being a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Amineptine was another DA reuptake inhibitor available in France, but was withdrawn from the market when the Olympic committee banned it as a performance-enhancing drug. Eventually, nomifensine was approved by the FDA in 1984 and named Merital. I had to beg Baron Shopsin to prescribe it for me. He said that the drug was a piece of sh*t, but acquiesced. People who were treatment resistant to all other antidepressants responded robustly to nomifensine. Unfortunately, reports of hemolytic anemia were emerging in association with nomifensine. In 1992, the FDA withdrew its approval, and nomifensine was withdrawn from the market worldwide. That was the decision of Hoechst-Roussell.
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> - Scott
Humans punish themselves endlessly
for not being what they believe they should be.
-Don Miguel Ruiz-
poster:Jay2112
thread:1122130
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20230117/msgs/1122134.html