Posted by alesta on August 24, 2004, at 8:59:47
In reply to Re: are stimulants neurotoxic? thanks in --zeugma » alesta, posted by zeugma on August 23, 2004, at 18:41:06
hi, zeug :),
i'm sorry to hear about your insomnia. i know how destructive sleep deprivation can be.
> "i was so out of it that i was walking into stationary objects, and it was nothing so benign as a tree or a pole... some folks on the bus were pretty irate with me!"
that's hilarious! sorry...:)what about that new drug, ambien? i'm sure you've probably already tried it, though....
> "I decided to try 50 mg Provigil with 10 mg Ritalin LA this morning."
that sounds like a *great* idea...i'm sure you probably already do this, but i would take the provigil the moment you get up in the morning so that it will wear off sooner, hopefully by bedtime. (it would be nice if it even elicited a bit of a crash for you so you could sleep.)
i wanted to add that i have no more fears whatsoever as to the neurotoxicity of stims. i believe now that the likelihood of stims being neurotoxic is the equivalent of the likelihood for antidepressants, antipsychotics, etc. so i am not worried one bit.:)
au revoir!
amy :)> hi amy, nice to hear from you too...:)hmm, it's been a busy couple of days, my p/t job did not give me much rest, but now that I have a couple of minutes to settle down and play some good music and reply to your post... it's been up and down, i had a bout of insomnia (i mean up till 5 am) on thursday night i think, then had to be at work early; as usual it made me feel really bad later on, during the weekend (is the weekend really over? oh yes it's monday). I've been doing better than i did earlier in the year with another episode of all-night insomnia, where by the end of the week i was having a very unpleasant feeling of unraveling completely at work. i was so out of it that i was walking into stationary objects, and it was nothing so benign as a tree or a pole... some folks on the bus were pretty irate with me!
>
> Anyway, about the neurotoxicity of stims, I have seen good info that neither methylphenidate nor the pharmacologically similar cocaine are neurotoxic. In fact methylphenidate may be 'neuroprotective', in some sense of that possibly overused word. The prozactruth-derived info is in my opinion, and ironically, false. One need not sing the praises of Eli Lilly to conclude that a site devoted to its evils is not the last word when it comes to pharmacology.
>
> I have also been struck by reports that modafinil (Provigil) is neuroprotective, and I decided to try 50 mg Provigil with 10 mg Ritalin LA this morning. It's the cardio effects from Ritalin that concern me, more than anything else, and testing the hypothesis that small doses of related but distinct drugs might have a synergy beyond what either, suboptimally dosed, might be expected to deliver spurred me on, particularly since I still don't feel all the way 'there' yet. It was very calming, good for my concentration, and when unexpected demands were placed on me at work, it was not too taxing. I had the usual Provigil feeling of being slightly sick to my stomach, and that was a s/e that was even worse at 100 mg, so 50 mg may be all I can handle anyway. I am concerned about insomnia, but I have to see what happens; feeling chronically underaroused is no fun either. Plus, I was becoming tolerant of the pediatric dose of Ritalin, and I think my pdoc is (rightly) concerned about possible cardio complications and interactions with nortriptyline. I will discuss the matter with him soon. It is proving difficult for me to get reliable info about how methylphenidate influences TCA metabolism. Modafinil seems much more benign in this regard.
>
> -z
poster:alesta
thread:380741
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040821/msgs/381660.html