Posted by sk85 on December 19, 2010, at 9:03:49
In reply to Re: Pycnogenol..mechanism for ADD depression?, posted by linkadge on January 23, 2006, at 15:16:35
I know this thread is age-old, but I feel that I need to add my experience with pycnogenol which has been actually rather negative. It definately is psychoactive and very reminiscent of Ritalin but much more subtle. This is where I think my problems started with pycnogenol.
I used to take Ritalin for concentration issues. The first few months were great but then I started to notice that my mood was beginning to change for the worse. I kept getting these intense feelins of desperation and sudden dips in motivation where out of the blue in the middle of the day I felt like I didn't want to do anything, even the most pleasurable things I used to do. There are also studies done on rats that show that long-term methylphenidate (Ritalin) causes depressive like behaviour in rodents. So I quit it and felt improvement.
Soon after I started taking pycnogenol for various other reasons. And again after a while I noticed that my mood was getting very very dark. And what do I find? Pycnogenol reduces dopamine and norepinephrine turnover (i.e. probably acts as a MAO-B inhibitor or NDRI). I have replicated this effect with pycnogenol numerous times. Feeling improvement when going off it and getting the same depressive like effect when going on it. It does although have a smooth stimulating properties but it's not worth the depression it brings on.
I'm not sure this effect applies to everyone, but there are other people out there who find DA and NA boosting drugs (eg Ritalin) making them depressed on long-term drug regimes. The reasons behind this are obscure, but it might have something to do with reduced dopamine sensitivity.
poster:sk85
thread:599300
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20101202/msgs/973972.html