Posted by Vince on June 18, 2001, at 13:46:36
In reply to Re: Memantine + Pemoline - Jean Paul, posted by AndrewB on June 18, 2001, at 10:44:11
AndrewB, can you tell me how you order memantine from Germany? Can you give me the ordering info?
Do you have to get a prescription from your doc? You can email if you would prefer.Vince
> Jean Paul,
>
> Thanks for the price info.
>
> The med. is more expensive in Argentina than Germany - $55 for 50 tablets approx. in Germany. I find it interesting that Argentina in general seems to have some of the highest drug prices in the world. This surprises me since Argentina, though not a poor country, neither is it a rich country. Usually drug companies price drugs roughly in relation to the average wage (excepting countries like Canada where the government negotiates drugs prices as a single bargaining agent, thereby providing leverage in setting prices).
>
> On the cocaine study- I didn't mention it to you but yes, memantine would likely change the quality of your experience with pemoline. For example it is likely to lengthen pemoline's duration of effect, smooth it out, and prevent tolerance over time to its initial effects.
>
> To repeat myself, though I’ve never read that moderate long term use of stimulants causes neurotoxic damage, their mode of action would make it seem possible or likely that damage does occur in small increments over time. One reason why this may not be reported is that the dopamine system ages (after 40) very rapidly in the “normal” healthy person, so it would be easy to ascribe any deterioration to normal aging. If this speculation of neurotoxicity is indeed valid, then the co-commitment use of low dose selegiline, NAC and memantine would seem to be wise. Beyond this, there is good evidence that depression (or certain subtypes) involves hyperglutaminergic (or hypo) activity in parts of the brain and presumably causing resulting damage that could contribute to the typical scenario of depression progressively worsening as we age, if untreated.
>
> A body of knowledge is evolving on the involvement of imbalance between our excitatory and inhibitory receptor systems in various psychiatric disorders; depression, hypophoria, compulsive drug use or pleasure seeking. Along with this knowledge is emerging strategies for restoring balance to these systems. It is likely we will find that some drugs’ ultimate effective actions are different than what we originally presumed. For example, it was thought SSRIs were effective due to their modulation of serotonin. However, it seems (one) of the most central ultimate actions of these meds is their ability (through a chain of events) to upregulate postsynaptic receptor activity on the dopamine D-2, D-3 neurons in the shell of the nucleus accumbens. More topical, is the action of methadone. Apparently it is has stronger activity as a NMDA receptor antagonist (ala memantine) than as opoid receptor ligand. Someone on the board recently said that they have found relief of depression only with methadone and no tolerance or addiction occurred. Perhaps we shouldn’t dismiss their experiences, however atypical, out of hand.
>
> AndrewB
poster:Vince
thread:66051
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010618/msgs/66979.html