Posted by Steve on August 26, 2000, at 0:39:09
In reply to Re: Meds and brain damage » Steve, posted by Cam W. on August 24, 2000, at 21:56:40
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> Steve - What were the meds and their dosages, length of therapy of each med and particular combinations. Tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome are two forms of brain damage that come to mind, but, if you look at the percentages, very, very few people who are treated with psychotropic medication ever develop any form of brain damage (but it does happen), What form of brain damage has occured to you? What are your symptoms, so we may be able to determine where the damage has occurred? - CAmI've essentially been on all the ssris, and many tricyclics. Adding all the meds I've taken up, I think the number is actually closer to 30 than it is to 20. For a while my docs thought I might be bipolar II so we tried lithium augmentation and a few other antiepileptics. I have a whole list of the meds, but suffice it to say that many if not most meds are on it. I'll be happy to send a list to Cam W.
My main complaints are that my memory is pathetic, ( I often forget conversations and the like from previous days) and that I have problems finding words, even more so in the foreign language I used to speak fluently. I have gone from an honors student to somebody who has trouble holding his own at a community college. I attribute this in part to one doc who didn't take lithium blood levels until I had a tiny partial seizure, and another doc who for reasons that he never explained (frustration and bewilderment?) tried me on Risperdal and Perphenazine, to the point that I had quite a bit of trouble to concentrate.
Anyway the point my doctor made is similar to a point that Cam W made in previous points, namely that meds work by changing the physiology of the brain. He said that by taking a med for long enough for the brain to adjust to it, and then changing the med, you not doing your brain any favors, to the contrary that I had damage similar to what you would see in someone who had abused multiple street drugs. When I pressed him on the point he said that you get protein tangles and the like. He also said that a small minority of depressives including myself have problems with the ssris and tricyclics, because both cause the release of noradrenalin which worsens some depressions. FWIW I take Lamictal right now, which is great for my mood, but slows me down even more.
I guess I should be thankful that I am no longer depressed, but somehow it hurts me to realize that my doctors forgot Hippocrate's injunction to first do no harm. If I would have to do it again, I'd find the best doctor I could afford right of the bat, and not be one of those hard to treat cases.
poster:Steve
thread:43629
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000822/msgs/43751.html