Posted by utopizen on December 30, 2005, at 7:27:34
In reply to Re: ADHD: Memantine-Emme » mike99, posted by Emme on December 24, 2005, at 19:53:55
> At this point, I also suspect that my focus may improve with practice. During the time that I had a lot of brain fog, I got discouraged and got out of the habit of even trying. Now that things are better, I think I need to just start making myself be disciplined.
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> emme
>
Emme,Thank you SO MUCH for pointing this out-- I can't stress this enough.
As my N.P. says, "Drugs only go half way." (He says this to encourage I go to therapy, which I finally do).
Um, I have to say, learning from Medline searches for Aricept that patients with dementia taking amphetamine or Aricept both improved on either drug when given cognitive behavorial therapy along with the drug.
They were given routine brain exercises in a lab and that apparently sharpened their mental pencils, if I may say such a thing.
I like to compare the brain to a cement truck. It's constantly going around and around, partyly because of nutrition, drugs, and biology, but also by the interaction of all these things by the "driver" (the person) engaging in "rotating" their brain.
By exercising, by walking even, by thinking, by forcing yourself to the habit of locomotion in general-- locomotion of body, but of mind as well- you will become more Socratic.
Socrates encouraged his students to have peripatetic learning-- sorry for the $10 word, but I love it- it simply means, to walk, basically.
The idea is, he'd give lessons and discuss with his students while walking (so I hate when teachers claim they use the Socratic method, because Socrates would hate the idea of teaching still all day).
OKAY, BACK TO PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, PLEASE DON'T DIVERT POST ELSEWHERE DR. BOB =)
Anyhow, I used this realization that new CBT methods to help mental acuity in geriatric patients who suffered dementia and took either an amphetamine or Aricept improved markedly better to teach my psychopharmacology class I took as a student about the cognitive enhancers and their application in emerging treatments like AD/HD with Exeucitve Dysfunction, Asperger's Snydrome, etc.
The point is this:
Your brain is mostly cement, constantly requiring locomotion of thought in general.
Exercises, mentally, at least, can and will help optimize how the drugs work.
When I was in speech therapy as a young child, thank god for my speech therapist being as skilled as she was! She helped me articulate with grace, after intially being inarticulate for many years as a child.
I remember doing tongue exercises.
She called them tongue exercises, because it exercised the muscle in my tongue, a big muscle actually in one's anatomy-- and I'd have to force my tongue to stretch itself out to the roof of my mouth like there was peanut butter stuck to it.
Anyhow, I know this is a long post, but, there's lots of stuff to say here, and, I would like to say I somehow pulled off what my psychopharmacology professor said was a "well-polished, impressive" concise and cohesive explanation into all the cognitive enhancers, like Aricept, Memantine, how they work, their neuroscience, their clinical efficacy, how their clinical efficacy relies heavily on therapy, etc. all in 10-15 min. tops, including questions.
And getting back to your mentioning of mood-- I initiated the rather daunting task at first (I had previously relayed concern to my professor I didn't know where to start or how to "interface" all my knowledge in a short time)--Yes, mood-- depression- whatever- is going to play a role in memory, in executive function.
I felt like my brain was getting stupid, permamently, when I was depressed-- a common feeling among us all.
Aricept, althought certainly tsken after much success with Lexapro and therapy and great loving friends who never ceased to tell me when I was not acting they way I ought to and not staying on task with my work, or social skills, etc.--
I pick friends who are never hesitant to tell me the truth with bitter honesty- and am a better perosn for it-
helped my mood ever after my Nurse Practioner and I agreed I was in "remission" from depression.
I went beyond being in "remission," and lacking a disorder. I felt positively progressing in general in life, exceeding beyond my peers, beyond my dreams, in everyday functioning.
It helped.
But drugs, they need your help as much as you need theirs. Combining them with good friends, therapy, lifestyle changes, inspiration, exercise, things that matter, and constantly rotating into different directions from within--
that's what makes the dose-response curve really fly off the charts.
poster:utopizen
thread:591702
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051221/msgs/593375.html