Posted by bleauberry on August 23, 2009, at 16:42:10
In reply to amantadine helped me in the past ... but psychosis, posted by Jeroen on August 22, 2009, at 17:15:09
> amantadine helped me in the past ... but psychosis is what i have now
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> My doctor is going to add Seroquel XR to my abilify and i hope it will help if not, shall i add amantadine, it has releaved some of my depression symptoms in the past... i need something after 11 years struggleAh hah. A clue. Finally.
Amantadine, more than anything else, is an anti-viral and has other poorly studied anti-microbial properties.
I think a long time ago I mentioned you might have Lyme disease, or some other pathogenic infectious type disease, since treatment resistant psychosis and depression is seen with some of those sicknesses. It usually results in a misdiagnosis of psychosis and depression, which are actually just the outward signs of an infectious organism burrowing in the nervous system and brain. Viruses are a cause of psychosis, even simple everyday viruses can totally transform someone's mental health for the worse.
If that is the case, in light of a previous good experience with Amantadine, and in light of the perplexing responses to supposedly appropriate meds for the "supposed" condition, no amount of any antipsychotic is going to convince those organisms to pack their bags and leave. My best guess is that the short response you got to Seroquel was its strong antihistamine effect reducing brain swelling, and then tolerance set in. Pure guess, but makes sense.
Strange as it may sound, well, actually I've been saying these strange things for a while now, your magic could likely come from a drug that is not used to treat depression or psychosis. I'm thinking things like Doxycyline, Diflucan, DMSA, Artesmisin.
I wish you could get your hands on some common herbal capsules such as Olive Leaf Extract or Grapefruit Seed Extract. Just to see if you Herx, if for no other reason. That in itself would be more diagnostic than any diagnosis you have had in recent history.
And this I've said a bunch of times, but pubmed has case reports of treatment resistant psychotic depression that responded to the combination of antipsychotic+TCA, but not to either alone.
How do you know Amantadine wouldn't help you today? I know the general consensus is that dopamine agonists can worsen psychosis, but with Amantadine it is a different game. Its dopamine agonist property is only a side action of its stronger mechanisms which have nothing to do with dopamine. If your supposed psychosis is from a virus, and Amantadine turns that virus off, your psychosis is bye bye my friend.
poster:bleauberry
thread:913511
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090818/msgs/913711.html