Posted by bleauberry on September 3, 2009, at 18:07:08
In reply to Lamictal intolerance sign of brain damage??, posted by whitmore on September 3, 2009, at 10:25:33
Most senior citizens are able to take lowish to medium doses of mood stabilizers and antidepressants. Alzheimer patients are usually able to take standard doses of a variety meds simultaneously. So in my opinion, the supersensitivity is a separate issue with a different cause.
Many integrative MD websites and my doctor say that these oversensitivites are correlated with immune system dysfunction, intestinal dysfunction, infectious organisms, and heavy metals. But, all of these go hand in hand, one causes the other, so it is the norm rather than the exception to have more than one pathology going on. There is no solid scientific research in this area. Instead, it just happens that when doctors are presented with med sensitivities, those other conditions are usually present as well. Those other conditions were likely suspects in causing the original symptoms in the first place long before med sensitivity set in.
Top contenders to look at:
Candida.
Microbial diseases such as Borellia, Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma.
Heavy metal accumulation, especially if you have or ever had silver fillings in your teeth.
Longterm serotonin reuptake inhibitor usage (don't know why this happens, but a strange med sensitivity has been reported frequently enough to justify taking a closer look at this phenomemon, or at the very least, acknowledging that something weird is going on with some of the longterm post-ssri users. Me included)I am super med sensitive. Many doctors. Many tests. Many trials. All of the above causes are things I am treating, so while this stuff sounds foreign and greek to most people on a psychiatric board, it is well known to thousands of others.
It could be that for some unknown reason those mood stabilizers were just horribly wrong molecules for your unique physiology. If you were equally sensitive to antidepressants or stimulants, then I would say it is a body-wide response, not simply a brain response. Some other hidden culprit.
Dilantin...if it helped and there was no sensitivity, I think that doctor was an idiot to refuse it to you. The very least he/she should have done is offered to monitor your liver and such and help you keep an eye on it. There is at least one book written by a famous person who was cured with Dilantin when nothing else worked and he was on it a long time. There is too much about the body, science, and the unknown, for any single doctor to know it all. So for any doctor to say Dilantin is too dangerous and refuse you the benefit you get from does not sound like good medicine to me.
They call it "practicing medicine" for a reason.
poster:bleauberry
thread:915586
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/915642.html