Posted by Flame on July 1, 2007, at 13:30:49
Okay .. yes, it's Flame posting, once again, in regards to her husband.
If you want (need?) LOL! to read previous posts by me .. with all of my laments, I believe you can do a search of my poster name "flame" and I'll bet they all come up.
After meeting with husband's doc early last week, I realized that his doc was not going to budge on changing anything in his prescription regimen .. UNTIL/UNLESS husband could go off alcohol for at least 4 weeks. He said that he couldn't (in good conscience) change anything unless he took the alcohol out of the picture. His psychiatrist SO thinks that the medications husband is on SHOULD be helping him, that he can't fathom husband's current issues being cause by anything other than the alcohol.
Husband is on Effexor 450mgs (for anxiety/depression) Provigil 200mgs(for daytime sleepiness and I guess this is ALSO supposed to help somewhat augment the Effexor)Mirapex 1 mg (for RLS) and Ambien 12.5 (for sleep).
I went to his doc advocating that he change husband's meds. My logic on this was that husband's VERY dramatic change in his drinking habits did not begin until six months after he began the above new(er) prescription regimen. Of course the psychiatrist did not agree with me. He told me that throughout these past three years he has advocated (even tried to help with supplying him with Campral) that he go off the alcohol .. if even for just a month. Well, he didn't and his doc is STILL advocating that he can't change anything until he does.
So .. after three years of enduring this and realizing that nothing is going to change, I stepped in. I showed up at husband's appt. .. much to his dismay. He was very angry at me. I think he was afraid that I was going to tell this doc his "secrets" in regards to some recent bizarre behaviours and things he has said in relationship to him finishing himself off. (This is one of his many forms of manipulation that he uses in on me.) Anyway, I must have done good, cause when we left his appointment, my husband actually thanked me for not causing trouble!
While there husband admitted that he could not stop drinking. Husband DID say that he would try to cut way back .. meaning that he would only drink in weekends. His doc did not think he could do this, but he said that if he COULD that certainly at least be an improvement.
So the doc gave my husband Campral to take throughout this. But, from what I have read about Campral .. you are really supposed to be trying very hard to get off alcohol totally while using this. Can anyone help me with this? I'm thinking that if my husband continues to drink (regularly) several times a week, this Campral will not help. (From what I have read anyway ..?)
My next question is in regards to Mirapex. Again .. I really need to be straightened out on this. The Mirapex works by mimicking the effects of dopamine in the brain. From what I understand it is supposed to up that dopamine in the brain .. thus giving more of a "feel good" response.
The Campral .. from what I understand is supposed to take away the "feel good" feeling that a person would get from the alcohol.
I know that this is very simplistic in the way I am describing these two. But from what I can gather, this is kind of the "jist" of these two .. isn't it? If this is correct, aren't these two (more or less) doing the opposite of each other?
Can someone help me get this straightened out in my mind?
poster:Flame
thread:767011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070630/msgs/767011.html