Posted by zeugma on August 2, 2004, at 18:41:19
In reply to Re: Norepinephrine vs. Dopamine, posted by KaraS on August 2, 2004, at 18:08:22
Well, this is just speculative on my part, from my experience with noradrenergic drugs (particularly Strattera) and the dopaminergic Provigil: Strattera did promote focused attention, but did not hook into the motor system very well. I felt like my mind was perfectly clear, but felt like an 'observer' at times of my state. The attention was there but the behavioral control was not. On Provigil it is markedly easier to direct my actions physically. This makes sense as dopaminergic drugs are used to combat Parkinson's which is a disorder of motor dyscontrol. Children with ADHD exhibit disinhibited movement. there are many variants of ADHD but there is clearly an interaction with the motor system that the DA drugs treat more effectively, although the NE drugs treat the cognitive symptoms to some extent by promoting attention itself.
This is more wild speculation, and those more knowledgeable about these things are free to object, but I found that nortriptyline has SOME effect on the motor system (reflected in a sense of 'slowing down' so I could use my attention to direct my actions) while Strattera had no effect on this at all. I wonder if this reflects a difference in the regional actions of the drugs, a claim Lilly (and my pdoc) were pushing. Provigil 'feels' more like nortriptyline than Strattera, because instead of promoting cognitive clarity, it promotes goal-directed action (which my scanning of the abstracts indicated was consistent with a DA effect). Provigil of course is much stronger than nortriptyline in this regard.
So in terms of energization and goal-directed activity: Provigil>nortriptyline>Strattera.
z
poster:zeugma
thread:373267
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040730/msgs/373315.html