Posted by pseudoname on June 8, 2006, at 10:30:04
In reply to Re: buprenorphine and AD failure » pseudoname, posted by stan on June 8, 2006, at 4:45:36
Hi, Stan. I'm glad you asked about this because I haven't mentioned it much.
> do you experience any "mental cloudiness" on the bupe?
Yes. Also, slight dizziness. (Very slight.)
When I first started bupe in December, I had to take 3 mg a day to notice an antidepressant effect. At that dose, I noticed feeling mentally tired (without being tired) or a gauzy feeling (not quite cloudy LOL), but I could still concentrate on reading & writing and follow a line of thought, and as far as I know my judgment was okay. But I avoided driving in the early days. Those feelings decreased a lot as weeks went on, but they never entirely disappeared.
HOWEVER, when I had med-free days for constipation reasons (see my next reply), I did have odd cognitive problems. For example, one day when I went without bupe, I signed in at Babble under my old posting name and password (from 9 months earlier) without realizing it! That sort of complication went away AFAIK on the second day without bupe or when I went back on the bupe.
In March I lowered my usual dose to 1 mg per day. I got the same benefit and have no explanation why it didn't work at that dose at first. Anyway, now mental gauziness comes and goes. If I increase the dose slightly by taking 0.7 mg in the morning instead of 0.5 (the tablets are hard to split precisely), the gauziness and dizziness appear or get worse but are still tolerable. They don't, as far as I can tell, interfere with writing or comprehension, but I wouldn't climb up on the roof feeling that way.
I should get some computer alertness tests and test the dose response carefully. (Anybody got suggestions?)
poster:pseudoname
thread:651514
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060604/msgs/654443.html