Posted by Kacy on February 16, 2004, at 14:11:59
In reply to Re: EFFEXOR for ADD? frustrated w/ my psychiatrist, posted by snarley on February 12, 2004, at 18:48:12
Marley:
I have add/inattentive. The first drug that seemed to work for me was Wellbutrin. Unfortunately, I broke out in hives just as it reached therapeutic levels. That was about three and a half weeks after starting. I was taking 150 mg. first thing in the morning and, again, at noon. For a day, I felt hope and excitement because it was helping me concentrate. I was working at the computer and about two hours had passed without me realizing it. I was teaching myself html, something I had meant to do for a while. I couldn't believe I had been working at it with full concentration. (I'm older than you and have needed this a long time. It's been so long since I have been able to do something like that. As I have gotten older, my problems with inattentiveness have worsened.) Wellbutrin is a drug I recommend that you try. It increases both seratonin and dopamine.
With Wellbutrin, take the Strattera. It's a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. You will get more norepinephrine since it clogs up the intake valves in some of the pumps that are constantly vacuuming up some of those transmitters. That leaves you with a larger supply. It's a great help to me. I still needed the stimulants, though. I had to go through a long time of trying the others before they were added on. (Thank the feds for that.) By itself, Strattera helped. It certainly wasn't enough for me. I have wondered, though, if I would have been able to get and maintain a response to Adderall if I hadn't started with Strattera. Is the clogging of those pumps leaving more of the Adderall in play, or is it just leaving more of my own paltry supply of natural norepinephrine in play, giving me just enough to be helped? I don't really know, but I know that the most Adderall my doctor can bring himself to write a script for is the minimum amount I need to get a fairly good effect, and I'm grateful for the combination.
I don't know enough about all the names for the different facets of Add, but if yours is the same, then talk to your doctor about Wellbutrin and Strattera as a combination. I wish I could use it.
Effexor, on the other hand, I'm not crazy about. My first doctor (who avoided writing a script for a stimulant like it was the plague) insisted that I go up to at least 300 mg. of Effexor before he would consider adding anything on. At 225 mg., I didn't get any additional benefit; because of the side affects, I refused to continue taking that much. I don't think Effexor's supply of serotonin with its much smaller supply of norepinephrine is a good idea for Add. My biggest deficiency is norepinephrine, and it seems to me that seratonin is always going to win the competition for the transport into the cells. As for Effexor and dopamine, I believe that presenting the 10:1 seratonin to dopamine ratio of Effexor as a benefit for Add is ludicrous, and my first doctor said (after I pushed for the answer) that the dopamine affect at high doses of Effexor is more theory than fact. I take the drug because I need some seratonin supplementation. I plan to switch to another brand someday. I take only 75 mg. I used to take 150, but after starting Strattera, I got as good a response with just the 75 as I had gotten with 150. I still don't like Effexor's side affects, but I keep using it because after taking it two and a half years, I know the drug well. I can recognize seratonin depletion within a day because of those famous side affects as well as because of its benefits, and I am using that to learn to manage Adderall and supplements and food choices to enhance the whole system. It's been a long road to here, and I'm still getting used to the whole package.
I hope you can make your classes a number one priority and just get through that while you work toward getting the right combination of prescriptions for you. Sadly, it takes time. As an example, it took me eight months to start Strattera, get over the side affects of 80 mg., go through an increase to 100 mg., and then get over the side affects of that. The 100 mg. dose took the most time. It took five months and I almost gave up. Two days before my appointment with my doctor, it miraculously changed. I've been fine with it since. (There were other tiresome missteps along the way.)
I'm sorry it's been so frustrating for you. Hang in there.
poster:Kacy
thread:312542
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040215/msgs/314127.html