Posted by PeterJ on June 18, 2004, at 23:51:04
In reply to Question for Chemist re Folic Acid and Nytol, posted by SuzieWong on June 17, 2004, at 4:58:11
Suzie,
I was very interested in your post as I have had similar reactions to some of the drugs you mentioned.
Folic acid causes me to have severe anxiety and panic. I have taken it on two occasions, once several years ago and again last year. Each time within a few days the anxiety starts and soon becomes horrifyingly bad -- far beyond any level of anxiety I normally feel.
I have taken both non-prescription folic acid and Foltx, which is a prescription formulation of folic acid and B-12.
The Foltx was prescibed for me following a cardiac proceedure (angioplasty) since it was thought to be beneficial for healing after angioplasty. Despite this, I had to stop taking after a week or so. What is ironic is that a few months later new research found that Foltx actully makes the results of angioplasty worse, so they no longer advise its use for that purpose. If interested, see the link below:
http://www.heartcenteronline.com/myheartdr/home/research-detail.cfm?reutersid=3505&nl=4
Getting back to your question, I have also had an unpleasant reaction to Prozac, which caused very severe anxiety and panic. We re-tried Prozac at the very tiny dose of 1mg per day and even that caused tremendous nervousness which did not subside even over several weeks of use.
I get unusual reactions to many drugs. Some stimulate me, and others, which stimulate many other people, slow down or sedate me. But Prozac and folic acid stand out as particularly bad for causing anxiety.
Now, your not going to believe this, but I also had precisely the same reaction as you did to Benadryl (diphenhydramine). I took it at bedtime, and found that it was calming and helped me to sleep. However, about half way through the following day I found myself getting unusually nervous and angry in a way that is not typical for me. It was unpleasant and even frightening.
I have thought about the possible causes for these reactions. At this point, I should perhaps mention that I have a degree in biochemistry and have actually published some articles on the metabolism of psychiatric drugs, so I had some background which was helpful in trying to figure this out.
There are several mechanisms which may account for some of these effects.
First, acetylcholine may be involved. Folic acid is important in the synthesis of choline in the body. Choline, converted to acetylcholine can cause depression and anxiety in susceptible individuals. Benadryl is a strong anticholinergic and thus may acutely reduce such anxiety but the rebound may make it worse.
Serotonin may also be involved. As you know, Prozac is a serotonin uptake inhibitor. What many people don't know is that Benadryl also has some serotonin uptake inhibiting properties. In fact a few years ago, a study on OCD used Benadryl as a one of the placebo arms, but they found that some of the patienst on Benadryl improved beyond what was expected for a placebo. They went back and explained that this might be a serotonin effect of Benadryl.
Folic acid may have an effect on the synthesis and metabolism of serotonin due to its interaction with terahydropbiopterin. This is a very complex subject but it is possible that the folic acid could be increasing levels of serotonin or a methylated serotonin metabolite. Folic acid is very involved in what is known as methylation reactions and methylation state has a strong effect on mental and emotional function.
It's a big subject, but I think it is very interesting that we had similar reactions to so many drugs. It might be helpful for both of us to compare reactions to drugs to see which ones might help us. I have chronic anxiety as well as a sleep disorder ... speaking of which, I'd better stop writing now and go to bed.
I hope we can continue this discussion here. I also encourage you to contact me at the following email address (modified here to minimize spam) so we can keep in contact to compare drug reactions:
PeterJanet .... at .... mail ... dot .... com
Please be patient as I don't always have the time or energy to read this board. I hope you will keep in touch.
PeterJ
poster:PeterJ
thread:357473
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040614/msgs/358008.html