Memantine experience so far....

[surferdude123]

Memantine might help the tolerance to some degree
but if your receptors are fried and downregulated, they will need to be restored, and that usually an extended break, rest, lots of water, fish oil and antioxidants to help the body, that is not folklore but FACT.

Quite frankly, I have to say, I am sick to death of people (not you) receiving misinformation from so called "sources" that state they know what they're talking about. They're glib.

I'm not claiming to know it all, and as you've read in this post, I'll freely admit when I don't know something (just read back through the posts!!)

Question

why do we even have science and medical breakthroughs and advances in medicine if it was phony?

The brain is like any other organ or muscle in the body, it needs rest, and it needs to be nourished. I.E. Neurotransmitters, Glucose, Hydration, Cerebral Spinal Fluid for lubrication and protection.

Proper sleep without pills.

Proper diet with lots of water, less refined carbs, sugars.

Exercise aggressive aerobic exercise has been PROVEN to help ADHD, and the brain, through increasing blood flow, combating fatigue, and increasing the release of ß-Endorphins, also helps sleep.

Caffeine, ********** those energy drinks, and perk a pot or two of coffee if you need it.

Stop Smoking. (if you do)

Don't abuse recreational drugs.

Drink at least 3-4 32oz glasses/bottles of water per day.

Adderall messes up your skin, and dries it out.


I hate this illness with a passion, and I'm guilty of not following my own advice sometimes, but what drives me nuts sometimes are internet scams claiming to CURE ADHD, and whatever it's all a joke.

Re: Memantine, it's not a magic bullet, and as you may have read on this thread, it takes a lot of practice and insight to get the timing, and dosage right for you, and requires a bit of work.

Think about taking memantine as taking a prep class for the LSAT, or MCAT, it's a tool, that's it. It works really well for some, and others it makes them foggy.....but it's a matter of brain chemistry.

I feel memantine would help you if you're willing to follow the advice that's given.

That is. Find a suitable time to take an Adderall break, start memantine, titrate, start back on Adderall.

See what your doctor thinks about it. There are virtually no side effects when you compare it to other more dangerous "potent" meds out there....and it's been around for quite a LONG time.

[DJ21_89]

I just decided to give Memantine another try as I did not take a break from Adderall during my initial trial with disappointing results and figured it was worth another shot. If the Memantine doesn't work out for me again at least I will have gotten a break from Adderall out of the effort :P

I restarted memantine 3 days ago, however I also decided to try taking my dose in the late afternoon/early evening and this so far has given me more tolerable results. I still get overwhelmingly exhausted and weak shortly after taking it but the brain fog during the next day is greatly reduced and sleep comes extremely easily. Hopefully this extremely sedating effect lifts with time unlike my first trial! My goal was to take the first week with absolutely no adderall or dexedrine and unless it gets easier in the next few days I honestly don't see myself lasting too much longer than this, however your recommendation of a full 2 weeks off makes me wonder whether I should fight to make it this long. Right now I am totally useless without my adderall/dex however the adjustment to memantine is no doubt making this even more unpleasant. I will continue to post updates on my 2nd go at this med.

Dan

[LaVieEnRose]

Started Memantine 5mg yesterday. Even though I'd read this entire sticky, it somehow slipped my notice that I'm supposed to go OFF Adderall 14 days prior. Oh boy. I'm not proud to be posting this, but maybe it'll help someone.

Well, I took the usual dose of Adderall I normally take, plus the 5mg Memantine. I definitely felt a difference.. there was fog, but it took away any anxiety I'd been experiencing. Last night I felt WAAAAY overstimulated. Oh my hell. It was a nightmare.

I can relate to pudge72's post.. not that I've been on Adderall that long, but taking a couple days off is nigh impossible. However in my case I have several health problems on top of ADHD that Adderall helps treat, and the fatigue isn't the issue that stops me.

Today I took the 5mg, and cut my Adderall dose down from 45mg to 30mg. Even though my experience was so awful last night, from what I experienced during the day yesterday, I know Memantine is a key to unlocking some of my ADHD, and cognitive dysfunction due to my illness. My prescribing doctor said nothing about going off Adderall, but he also didn't talk about titration totally. He said to start at 10mg and we'll go from there. Per suferdude's repeated instructions to titrate slowly, I decided to do 5. I'M GLAD I DID!

So far, so good. This morning I had a desire, out of no where, to start reading about what is known about Quantum Physics! What the? That's saying quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm not thrilled that I'm going about this in an unorthodox manner, but I'm going to give it a try. I'll update in a week if anyone cares to know.

[LaVieEnRose]

Yea, I'm not coming back to update in a week. I'm going to follow the regimen Surferdude stipulates. I know these quotes weren't directed toward me specifically, but I need to respond from my experience.

Memantine might help the tolerance to some degree but if your receptors are fried and downregulated, they will need to be restored, and that usually an extended break, rest, lots of water, fish oil and antioxidants to help the body, that is not folklore but FACT.

I don't feel like my receptors are fried at this time, but I feel like taking the two together, without the break, and even trying Adderall at a lower dose, could potentially do something harmful. I have no idea. All I can say is, this is a very uncomfortable feeling toward the evening, even at the lowered dose of Adderall.

One thing that has been mentioned, that might help pudge72 is that Memantine is stimulating. I guess most people have been experiencing some fatigue with it the first few days and then finding the stimulation. For me, there's no question that it is.

Quite frankly, I have to say, I am sick to death of people (not you) receiving misinformation from so called "sources" that state they know what they're talking about. They're glib.

I don't know why my doctor would say nothing of the titration or going off Adderall, except that it's possible he doesn't know. That's a little disconcerting as well!

Anyway, tomorrow starts day 1 of my Adderall hiatus in preparation to try Namenda correctly. I don't recommend taking it with Adderall initially, from experience. Suferdude's advice is sound.

[surferdude123]

hi guys

keep updating as you go, glad to hear you're trying things out as per recommended.

Memantine is stimulating, as it's promoting to upregulate receptors, specifically Dopamine.

It does function however, as a neuroprotective medication, and off-label studies have demonstrated efficacy outside of ADHD, OCD, Depression.

Right now, I'd recommend sticking with a slow titration to minimize the brain fog sometimes associated with it.

[surferdude123]

p.s.
glad you're slowly titrating and that things are working out better for you!!


take care
S.

[kassem23]

Thought I'd post this from my thread on M&M.

To all of those who are still following, I have now terminated my Memantine trial since I can't risk going behind my parents again. Things have escalated here at home, and I think it is best for me to be straight with my parents and psychiatrist for now.

I'll quickly recap my experimentation after an almost ~2 months trial.

These were the effects of the combination of 20-40 mg Memantine daily combined with ~10-15 mg of dextroamphetamine.

Positive

Improved mood in general.
Reduced negative thought loops.
Improved motivation, especially for intellectually demanding stuff.
Improved tolerance to boredom.
Reduced social-anxiety.
Euphoriant qualities of alcohol dramatically increased.
Improved ability to speak and formulate myself.
Dramatically improved executive function.
Reduced general rumination.
Less fatigue. Could read/study for hours at a time, without feeling fatigued.
Improved ability to control emotions. Less subjective, more objective.
Improved feelings of tranquility and calm.
Linear creativity improved. Being able to see relationships and think logically greatly improved.
Less irritability (Great for me, since I am usually very irritable and impatient with people, and in general)

Neutral

Tendency to go to hyper-arousal states greatly reduced. Caffeine, nicotine, and all stimulants become more enjoyable.
The reduced general anxiety seems to be because of reduced intake of stimuli. Increased latent-inhibition perhaps.
Ability to multi-task, multi-thread greatly reduced.
More control of my emotions perhaps result in reduced abstract creativity. Tangential-thinking processes limited.
Flight of ideas decreased.

Negative

Insomnia. Could easily stay up all night. ~2mg Melatonin helped with this.
Due to the acute-like effects of amphetamine, greatly reduced food-intake. Could prove very negative in the long-term.
Increased stereotypy.
Increased hyper-focus (both positive and negative, though)
Inability to relax -- e.g. reading fiction, watching television, etc., became less enjoyable.
Slightly less aware of my surroundings. More aware of intrinsic environment.
Sometimes felt a bit "slow" due to increased latent-inhibition. Stimuli is deeply processed before brain allows me to move on.
Intrinsic motivation for exercising greatly reduced. Academics seems more interesting.

[Naussicaa]

LaVieEnRose, I cannot contact you in PM.
I've been taking a tolerance break for a week. I had around 7mg of Dexedrine, with 10mg of Namenda taken every other day, maybe I had 2-3 with sleep and all the good stuff I was supposed to do. It worked dramatically better. I don't think that Adderall/Dexedrine can work daily, it simply loses its power. Today I have done more than I did while I was on it daily.

[copperpenny]

anybody know how much memantine costs without insurance? i am switching plans this summer so I am going without insurance for a couple months. FWIW, i live in USA California.

thanks

[copperpenny]

Hey Yall

Has anyone compiled a list of the studies on Memantine for ADHD treatment? I'll peruse through the thread later, or do some googling when I feel less lazy, but I figured it was worth a shot seeing if anyone's done the work already :-)

thanks, oh, and you can email me at:

copper penny 2011 @ g mail. com (but without the spaces)

[surferdude123]

hi guys

almost the 1 yr mark for me this year with this.


Kassem, thank you for your very detailed update, much appreciated.


Copperpenny, not sure on the cost, that;s something I can look up for you, what is your situation at the moment? student? married w/kids? what sort of healthcare plan are you on??


Take care!

[surferdude123]

Le Vie En Rose.


tried to send you a pm but it says you are not accepting messages.

Please message me your email, and I will get you some answers.

[Ollie]

Thank you Surferdude for this thread. I've been following it with much interest for some time now, and I'm looking forward to your 1 year update.

Now, I would like to start memantine myself too. I've treated my ADHD-PI in the past with Concerta (and Ritalin), but after about a year it lost it benificial effects and I couldn't handle doses higher than 36mg because of the side effects (54 made me anxious, quiet, scared, nervous and paranoid). So I quit the Concerta all together but my study suffered (1st year medical student), so I went back to my doctor to try another medication. He put me on Strattera, and although it improved my memory and I felt a lot calmer, it also made me feel dead and I couldn't enjoy anything anymore. I got depressed and suicidal.

I quit the Strattera, and the suicidal thoughts left as quick as they came. To help with my depression my doctor prescribed me Paxil (paroxetine) which is what I'm on right now. I do feel better but my ADD seems worse than ever (it's really bad ).

I will restart my studies next year and I want everything to be perfect when I do, so now I have the time to experiment with some medications.

Right now I'm thinking I want to try a combination of dexedrine with memantine, because I think the memantine will help with:

- (most important) preventing tolerance
- my terrible memory (it's REALLY bad, I struggle with this a lot);
- protecting my brain from dex-induced excitotoxicity (what a word )

I'm just not sure how I should tell the psychiatrist I'm going to see about this (an ADD specialist). I don't know what evidences I could show that would help me convince this woman. I would really like some help here. To the people that are on memantine, what did you tell/show your doctor?

Thanks! I will see her in 11 days so I'll leep you posted.

[surferdude123]

send me a pm with your email and I will send you the journal articles.

all within 5 years, so very recent, approved research from respected journals supporting it's use, safety, efficacy.

take care

[gimmeabreak]

Okay surferdude123

I'm sold on the Memantine but I'm still debating if I should bring it up with my doctor. I'm 23 with prehypertension, was misdiagnosed with major depression, and have been hospitalized for auditory hallucinations that was induced by Clonazepam with no reoccurance afterwards. No-nos for being prescribed Adderall. My doctor does listen to some degree, but I didn't understand why he didn't prescribe Clonidine for HBP with Adderall. I guess to see the side effects. My BP now is around 140/80, and stress and lack of cardiovascular activity is the main culprit. I also went from 154 to 148 pounds in 4 weeks. So on top of my plans on asking for a 5mg increase for XR, I want to ask about an off-label use of Memantine. Any ideas how the hell do I go about doing this? You think I would be asking too much at once or should I give it time?