Posted by manowar on May 17, 2002, at 16:01:54
In reply to Re: Pressor effects and response » manowar, posted by IsoM on May 16, 2002, at 19:47:38
> Glad to hear that adrafinil is still working for you. I was surprised initially that only 1 tablet worked for me considering I have narcolepsy. But after a while, it wasn't enough. I think that's when people think they have a drug poop-out. But that's not what I believe happens. I think the initial release of natural PEA from noticing any improvement contributes to the elation felt. After the levels of PEA taper off as they should, the true effects of the med is then felt. Sometimes the dose just isn't high enough. I had to raise my adrafinil to 3 tablets a day. I wish it could be lower, it would be cheaper, but that's what works for me long term.
>
> Nope, IsoM is the only username I use. Cam W. definitely is a male, very much so, who lives in a diff province of Canada. He knows far more than I ever do (or will) about meds & their pharmacology. He's no ordinary pharmacist but one who's gone far beyond what's normally required out of intellectual curiousity. He doesn't post too often now as he had hit a severe slump. He's back posting but infrequently. I hope he feels good soon. His insight is very valuable.
>
> Cute the way we need to take meds, hey? I take most in the morning with my tea (not all are psychotropic either). I shake out the required pills into my palm & then look them over to make sure I have all the right ones. Sometimes I'll think "nope - one of the colours is missing" & have to recheck. Between them & supplements, I've become very good at swallowing large numbers of pills in one mouthful. :-)^So sad, but so true, as a matter of fact, I can't even remember the last time I gagged:)
I take four Adrafinil a day. My doctor is very impressed with Provigil and its effect on the prefrontal cortex. He doesn’t care that I get the Adrafinil from England, because he realizes that it practically does the same thing as the Provigil. I still can’t believe that Cephalon has the audacity to charge their prohibitive price for basically a copycat drug.
IsoM, I think you are absolutely correct regarding the so called 'poop out' effect. We pitiful depressives: we keep searching for the ‘Holy Grail’- the one or two meds to ‘fix’ our problems. It just ain’t that easy for the most part. We’re looking for 'The' drug that works, when indeed many times, especially for hard to treat cases, it may take a combination of five to ten meds to get the brain functioning the way it should! Therefore, in hard to treat cases (like my own), I’m beginning to believe that if a certain drug is not causing too many unwanted side effects, yet it doesn’t ‘seem’ to be working, we and our pdocs need to be patient and deliberate with our ‘game plan’ before we give up on one drug to go to the next. Hey, that drug is doing something (hopefully a good something), whether we can tell or not.
For way too many years my doctor would try me on this and if it 'didn't work', he would switch me to 'that', and so on, and so on, ad nauseum...
What I have ascertained from experts in the field of psychopharmacology, is that especially with the co morbid type conditions-- SEVERAL areas of the brain may not be working correctly. In other words, if a person has a low functioning prefrontal cortex, AND has an over active Basil Ganglia, AND has an under functioning left temporal lobe—let’s face it—that poor soul is going to need A) Lots of counseling B) A good overall support system C) Most importantly-- a well devised combination of psych meds, good nutrition, and exercise.
I’m glad I had the balls to plunk down the dough, fly to CA to get my scans done. Because, by looking at how pitifully different areas of my brain were functioning, it finally dawned on me (and the doctors) that it would take a very well thought out, aggressive game plan for any hope for me to get better.
BTW: I've made a lot of progress since then, but it takes a lot of patience and time when you're working with an array of meds. I was even thinking about getting another set of scans done as my condition improves. It’s like getting a tune-up. -- Okay, we've made some major improvements, can we tweak some things and make it work even better?I’ll end my speech by saying this. I think that not only patients, but doctors many times underestimate the complexity of the human brain. For doctors, it may be because that most other organs in the human body are quite simple in function, therefore they may think of the brain in the same one dimensional way. I know from personal experience that many pdocs use this method:
1) Interview patient
2) Take an educated guess of what the problem is.
3) Take an educated guess of what the best meds (and/or counseling) for this condition would be
4) Write script(s).
5) In a few weeks or so, if med(s) are not working adequately, repeat process.The problem is that without regarding where brain malfunctions may be occurring, this doctor may well be wasting the patients time, money, hope, AND LIFE. This educated guessing game may work well for a kidney or a heart, but I contend that it is completely inadequate for the brain, in many cases.
‘The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.’- Einstein
I know the above quote doesn’t quite fit, but its one of my favorites.
Tim
P.S. I hope to go to Toronto in a month or so for business. I love your country, and I can't wait! I heard it's a lot like NYC.
poster:manowar
thread:106073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020517/msgs/106802.html