Posted by undopaminergic on April 13, 2008, at 19:11:00
In reply to Re: Memantine May Prevent More Than Stimulant Tol » undopaminergic, posted by Sigismund on April 11, 2008, at 1:44:37
> What did Memantine feel like for you?
>It had a kind of stimulant effect that is hard to describe, but it has to do with motivation, incentive salience, anticipation, desire, and other such rather vague terms. Normally, at the emotional level, I experience little or no anticipation of reward (anticipatory anhedonia), and so nothing comes natural but requires conscious effort. With stimulants, I'm capable of more conscious effort, and I can be quite high-functing in many respects, but still nothing comes effortlessly, and I really don't do things just for fun (for example, I've stopped watching TV). Things don't *feel* interesting or important, although I may *know* that they are and consciously direct my efforts accordingly.
Those are some of the things affected by memantine. For example, it made me engage in spontaneous "meaningless" explorative behaviour without any particular reason. It imparted a sense of everything being possible and achievable, without much conscious effort, or in other words, motivational problems were nearly abolished. Generally speaking, life seemed a more pleasant experience and less of a chore than usual.
I'd say that in general, the effects were those that have traditionally been associated with mesolimbic dopamine (the nucleus accumbens, etc.), yet memantine was decidedly different from any dopaminergic agent I've tried. I suspect that NMDA-receptor activation somehow interferes with important aspects of dopaminergic signalling, and that memantine reduces that interference.
> Excitotoxicity?
> Does it have symptoms associated with it?
> Do you know what they are?Excitotoxicity is the overstimulation of neurons, which if sustained and intense results in irreversible damage. Widespread damage would probably result in death or long-lasting neurological deficits. It has been proposed that low-level excitotoxicity may be an underlying cause of conditions such as migraine, depression, ADHD, and probably others.
poster:undopaminergic
thread:822260
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20080204/msgs/823107.html