Posted by bleauberry on December 14, 2007, at 18:49:17
In reply to Would I react the same way to Wellbutrin SR?, posted by Maxime on December 12, 2007, at 14:02:11
Maxine, I offer you my deepest heartfelt apologies. I had no idea of your agonizing history or of the extreme efforts by you and your doctor. Forgive me? Feeling stupid.
One thing seems obvious. Whatever it is causing your symptoms is likely not related to serotonin, dopamine, or norepinephrine. Every possible angle available to manipulate them has been tried. The problem is not psychiatric. Psychiatric symptoms yes.
So I have been studying other things.
Some people, especially if not eating, just don't have enough neurotransmitter pools for any drug to manipulate. I imagine you have probably tried naturally raising your pools with 5htp and/or tyrosine?
Pyroluria...genetic defect that can be reversed with huge doses of B6 + zinc.
Genetic defects in the B12/folate/SAMe arena...reversed with high doses of them.
Copper toxicity. Best measured in red blood cells. Can be reversed with high doses of zinc and molybedenum. More common than realized and produces profound untreatable psychiatric symptoms. Copper may come from sources in the environment or food, or may accumulate due to another bodily problem in clearing out toxins, but it primarily comes from...multivitamins; copper water pipes that supply your bath and drinking water.
Intoxication by mercury, lead, arsenic, or lead...either current or from decades ago. Best single test...Fractionated Porphyrins. FDA approved, it shows if damage has occured due to a toxin and steers you toward which toxin it was. It is a urine test, but requires a very competent experienced lab to avoid false negatives. If your doctor wants to know more, let me know. It goes something like this...if elevated coproporphyrin it suggests mercury or a rare genetic defect; but if uroporphyrin is also elevated then the porphyria is due to intoxication rather than genetics. Toxic precoproporphyrin indicates intoxication, but by something other than mercury. And so on.
Plasma amino acid profile is useful to see which to restrict in the diet and which to supplement.
Ties in closely with both depressed and elevated histimine which produces symptoms like yours, which is best measured via platelet neurotransmitters.
Regardless of what your thyroid lab numbers say...normal or whatever...striking improvements can be seen with the addition of more T3. Really good docs ignore the labs and go by feel. With your thyroid disease, this could be especially pertinent. More T3, maybe more T4 with it, forget the lab numbers.
Wish I knew more. Seems like the more we know the more we realize we don't know enough. In any case, your med history sure points to some other physical abnormality/toxicity, where the brain is being impacted but is not at fault. The fault is somewhere else.
I would recommend both you and your doctor read a book. The book goes in detail about the things I have brushed on here, but also goes into many other things that would take me days to write. It is mostly written for the doctor, but is easy enough for a patient to read. It was written for people poisoned by amalgam fillings, but in actuality is a must-have bible for anyone with profound physical or mental problems of any kind. The book is called Amalgam Illness by PHd Andrew Cutler. New it is $60, used on amazon about $30. About 200 pages. I read it in about 4 hours and go back and study it all the time. I am mercury and lead toxic. It is my guide in depression, anxiety, pain, intestinal malabsorption, inability to gain weight, aches and pains, fuzzy eyesight, weakened immune system, food intolerances, chemical sensitivities. Toxins do all that stuff. But whether symptoms are caused by toxins, genetics, or unknown, they can be treated or reversed with very specific treatments. Some of them, but not many, are psychiatric meds. Most of the treatments involve things you might never have heard of.
I truly hope this is helpful in some way. Again, I just have to say, that when one looks at the list of psych meds you have tried, it only takes pure logic to come to a simple conclusion that this problem is something other than psychiatric, though the most evident result of it is psychiatric in nature. So when I say look outside the box, what I mean is read that book along with your doctor so the both of you can pinpoint some exact labs to do to get a better picture of what is going on in your body, stuff that is just not evident at all in everyday lab tests.
I am at just as much of a loss as you are to know what is going on. But you want my gut instinct? Hey, I visit other forums related to my other problems. I've read books and articles about things that cause psychiatric symptoms. I must say, you fit the clinical picture perfectly...heavy metal toxicity. Which one? Each has a way to test and pinpoint and treat. Just gut instinct. The picture is just too perfect to not be, all except for the normal cortisol levels. Usually those are low. Other than that, well. My thoughts.
Back to your original topic, I have no idea if a different version of wellbutrin, or any other psych drug will help you. Based on your history, I would say take small doses of things that have helped you a little bit, mix them up, and while maintaining that move on to aggressive discovery of what the heck is causing all this. Your doctor sounds perfectly capable if he is armed with the right information to guide him.
poster:bleauberry
thread:800361
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071213/msgs/800864.html