Posted by novelagent on July 11, 2012, at 17:56:45
In reply to Re: Memantine for Depression - How long to wait? » novelagent, posted by SLS on July 11, 2012, at 6:47:14
Scott,I take it you were only on the starting dose of 5mg then-- Aricept is dosed at 5mg for 3 months before it's raised to 10mg.
The way acetylcholine works, Aricept won't work for months, because it basically slowly builds up stores of Ach. before anything happens... I'm over-simplifying, but basically, yeah.
Also, CDP Choline alone probably won't do anything for mood, but you should note a study of schizophrenics who took galantamine (Reminyl) and 2 grams of CDP Choline/day found great benefit to their cognitive functioning. So this would likely be replicable with Aricept + CDP Choline (aka citicoline).
I feel for you. If it wasn't for this board, I would have never gotten the idea (it was someone else's) of taking selegiline and DLPA combined. This combination brought me out of a year's deep depression in a single day (and there's a theoretical basis for why the combo works so quickly). Although I'm guessing you've tried that... you seem to have tried many things. This was before Emsam came out... it was 2004.
Anyhow, hang in there, it gets better. Something will stick-- before I tried selegeline, I even tried antipsychotisc+SSRI combos. The trick, though, is to keep busy. I'm just working 2 days/week, so I signed up with a group to work the other 5 days. I was afraid I'd get depressed again if I had too much free time.
I think it would be a disorder if someone _didn't_ get depressed if they stared at a wall everyday, which is what a lot of mentally ill people do, sadly, watching tv, etc.
No one ever has a recovery story that starts with, "I took meds while sitting on my *ss, and the meds were so powerful, I got better anyhow." I didn't want to be like that, and it's nice to go to bed everyday knowing I did something meaningful.
Of course, depression means one has less energy. But as a CBT packet explained to me when I was depressed, activity while one is depressed is energizing, and energy begets more energy. So... if you are worried about doing too much, just think of how little energy you feel when you don't do anything at all, and see activity as a counter to that. Of course, you may very well be super busy already. =)
> > > > Aricept has actual evidence of elevating mood without it just being a placebo effect-- I don't understand why a drug that doesn't work gets all the attention, and Aricept, a perfectly fine drug that actually works, is ignored.
> > > >
> > > > I've tried memantine at 40mg, and it does nothing-- I wasn't taking it for mood, just for cognition, but it didn't even increase my Lumosity.com scores. And even DHEA would consistently do that. Aricept works, try that.
> > >
> > > I already tried Aricept. If it worked for everyone, you would never have heard of me.
> > >
> > >
> > > - Scott
> >
> > Scott,
> >
> > sorry to hear it didn't work out. For me, Aricept didn't kick in for 3 months-- how long did you try it for? Was it with a stimulant?
>
> I am sure that I did not take Aricept for as long as three months. I'll have to ask my doctor about his current thoughts on Aricept. I know of only one person who was on Aricept for many months, and it didn't help her depression, even though she believed it helped improve her cognition briefly at first. I don't know what dosages either of us took. She might have been taking Ritalin at the time. I was not taking any type of psychostimulant except caffeine.
>
> Thanks for your taking an interest in my case.
>
>
> - Scott
>
>
poster:novelagent
thread:1019496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120630/msgs/1021153.html