Memantine experience so far....

[Aspie101]

Originally Posted by War Lord

I wouldn't touch that without gloves and breathing protection unless I run the following tests on it to verify composition:

- ICP
- NMR
- IR
- Raman
- XRD
- XDS
- EDX
- MS
- Pyrolysis
- Organic carbon
- Titration

Once the tests go well, I would feed the medicine to 100 rats and carefully analyze the behavior over the next 12 months. If no rats die or present any impairment, I would consider trying a pill myself.

That post made my day with its dripping sarcasm but its not like I wouldn't say the same!

[ideaman]

Guys reachout007 is just someone sitting in india, getting paid to infiltrate forums and spread marketing info.

[ideaman]

Alright, sorry, I only read reachout007's second post. now I read the first one so it looks like he's a legit poster. sorry again.

[Aspie101]

Originally Posted by ideaman

Alright, sorry, I only read reachout007's second post. now I read the first one so it looks like he's a legit poster. sorry again.

I can say I could have made the same mistake. The internet is strange place and often spammers do break through so you have to be careful.

[ReachOut007]

Umh no Im legit, from Ohio but thanks anyway, and how would it benefit someone from India to discredit their own product? Sorry if I disrupted this beautiful thread.

[surferdude123]

no I didn't mean YOU were from india and it wouldn't matter if you were from India you could from the UK, Canada, whatever....it's not about that.


As another member ^^^ above just wrote......he/she is telling you to exercise extreme caution regarding this.




Think about this.

What if the medication you're getting is.............

A) not really memantine, but placebo or the like

B) say 50%, 45%, 65% etc Memantine?

The issue is......


This would possibly bring a whole new set of side effects, discussions, problems, and not to mention the ethical considerations of providing advice to someone who hasn't technically been properly prescribed this medication, and that has ordered it online. It's not about being elitist or snobby, I hope you can understand that.

This also isn't a pill you can just "pop" as soon as you get it in the mail, and expect it to be the magic bullet; myself and the other members of this thread/forum have gone to great painstaking lengths to get their dosing schedules right, and have demonstrated the patience and respect this medicine deserves.

If you've been prescribed Memantine, or are wishing to seek more information about it to bring to your doctor to have him/her Rx it, that's great, myself, and everyone else would be happy to have you on board to offer advice, suggestions etc..... but to just simply order it online, you're taking a big risk.

My advice is to trash the stuff you ordered, PM me, and I'll email you the literature to approach your doctor with for a prescription. That's really only the best option I can think of at this point, keeping your best interests in mind as well.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by surferdude123

This would possibly bring a whole new set of side effects, discussions, problems, and not to mention the ethical considerations of providing advice to someone who hasn't technically been properly prescribed this medication, and that has ordered it online. It's not about being elitist or snobby, I hope you can understand that.

There are no ethical considerations to providing helpful advice, ever. You're overreacting and I find it quite insulting, lacking both understanding - what do exactly you know about this persons personal situation and motives? - and sympathy.

I would overlook this from most others, but I know you are on your way to become a doctor and you should know better than to scare someone like this.

My advice is to trash the stuff you ordered, PM me, and I'll email you the literature to approach your doctor with for a prescription. That's really only the best option I can think of at this point, keeping your best interests in mind as well.

Can't disagree here, this is definitely the the best option.

[surferdude123]

I'm not trying to "scare" anyone.

I'm being realistic. I know of a case in hospital of someone ordering a medication from "india" (not Memantine or any such thing) - a (beta blocker) and they ended up with kidney failure because it was garbage. They are now sitting in the dialysis unit three times a week......


Im not trying to run anyone out, like I said, I WILL BE more than HAPPY to provide advice as will everyone else, once the poster gets a prescription for Memantine, not ordering it online, without any medical consent.


I also don't want this thread going off track. It is designed to help people who have been, or are considering a legal prescription for memantine, to assist their difficulties with ADHD.

[Anthony121]

I just took 20mg from taking 5 mg for 2 weeks..


I'm just going to manhandle the side effects..

[Anthony121]

I took 20mg today at 11:40 from taking 5 mg a day for 2 weeks ending yesterday.

I know the first 2 days of taking the 5 mg I felt crazy tried.. But, I forgot how long it took till the side effects kick in.

It's 1:16 and I don't think i'm feeling the side effects that much or probably not at all.. My mood is pretty awesome right now.. I can't imagine how better I'll feel when I start taking the adderall..

today and tomorrow will be a drug holiday from adderall

[surferdude123]

yah the tiredness can happen, and be a side effect but usually it will dissipate.

glad to hear you're off to a good start. keep us posted.

[surferdude123]

*******REMINDER******

I just wanted to remind everyone that I am not a qualified psychiatrist, and that this thread was started simply to document my positive experience (as a medical student) with the medication. Advice or suggestions are only offered in a hypothetical sense and are to be discussed alongside a properly qualified psychiatrist or primary care physician.

These forums are designed as a means of support for fellow ADHD sufferers and in doing that, we share ideas, suggestions, and offer support within these threads.

Please remember to discuss with your doctor, any treatment ideas or suggestions contained within this thread, or any other thread you visit in the forums.


Thanks.

[Anthony121]

Yeah, Memantine at 20mg HELPS a huge lot.. I know I said I wasn't going to take adderall today but I took one my doses just to see how much better it would make me.. no words can describe..It was great.. I thought I was going to get the side effects really bad because I jumped from 5mg to 20 mg.. but, that wasn't the case at all.. I thought it was worse when I started on the 5 mg..


My girlfriend said she could tell the difference right away in the first 5 minutes of seeing her today because the only place my eyes were directed to was at her eyes while we spoke. I was also responding better.. I didn't mumble my words, I didn't try to spit them all out all out at the same time.. I didn't have trouble speaking slowly and clear..

First day and loving it already..

[StarStuff]

Hey guys, wanna give you an update on how my memantine experience is going. I should have done a little more reading on how to successfully take memantine first. I didn't know that titration and dosing times were so specific. One of the issues was I haven't been paying attention to dosing times at all. I wake up at a different time almost every day because of the way my schedule is set up, so I've just been taking it once when I wake up and again either in the late afternoon or early evening. Wish I had known earlier not to do that!

Another issue was I titrated up to 30 mg very fast, partly because I didn't experience negative side effects too badly. The "brain fog" wasn't so noticeable, though a few times I did feel a little off. There were a few days where I was just completely tired, or a few days that I felt very physically weak and just getting up to use the bathroom or go to the kitchen to make a sandwich required a lot of effort. It was hard to tell what was the memantine and what was the adderall rebound effects though, because I used to get such horrible rebound effects form adderall.

Which brings me to the one consistent benefit I've gotten from memantine: I'm no longer dependent on adderall! Despite my completely erratic dosing times, the one consistent result is that I can choose to not take adderall and know that I won't be completely depressed and unfocused for that day. Before, I used to have to take adderall breaks for it to remain effective, but my off days were miserable. The worst was when the tolerance breaks would barely help, despite how horrible they were to get through.

But, my memantine results for tolerance have been inconsistent. I think my third issue was that I didn't take a two week adderall break when starting it. I took a few days off, and after probably the second day on memantine I started taking adderall again. I just couldn't afford an adderall break so close to exams.

Still, after a few weeks on 30mg, it suddenly worked. All of last week, I was completely amazed with memantine's effect on my adderall tolerance. It was completely reset! 20mg went from barely constituting a therapeutic dose to becoming a recreational dose. It was just too intense! I definitely agree with surferdude's posts in this thread suggesting you go back to your original dose of adderall and seeing how it works. I had to buy a pill cutter and go back to 10mg, which was my starting dose with adderall. And it was just as strong as it was the first time I took adderall, all of last week. Even when I first started adderall, I had to bump up to 20mg by day 5 for it to work as well. I don't know what I was doing with the times I dosed, but whatever it was, it was right! Now, unfortunately, my tolerance is back with a vengeance.

So, I'm going to start over with memantine. I'm going to keep taking it for the next week, except at regular times now, since I still need to take adderall for finals and papers before the semester ends. I'm gonna lay out my plan, and I'd appreciate it if surferdude or other people who've experienced consistent success with memantine could tell me if I should change anything.

1) After my last final and paper is handed in, I'm going to take a week off, meaning no memantine or adderall.

2) After a week, I'm going to start memantine at 5mg in the morning for a full week, then move up to 5mg twice a day for another week. Then I'm going to try taking a 10mg adderall and see how it is. Is this enough time off adderall? 3 weeks off, with 2 of those weeks having started memantine again?

3) I'm going to try to be very consistent with dosing times. I'm going to start setting alarms on my phone, and I'll have memantine and water on me wherever I go so I can take it when I need to.

4) I wanted to ask you guys about dosing intervals. I read through this entire thread, and I found that different people reported success with different dosing schedules. Some people said 12 hours, some said 9 or 10, some 8, etc... Right now I'm going with taking them 10 hours apart. Does this sound like a good idea? It seems like the most even compromise between the range of reported dosing times, but I'd really like a second opinion on this.

5) After 10mg, should I continue going up 5 mg a week? Side effects are barely a problem for me. Some people reported incredible dizziness or lethargy even at 5mg, but anything I've felt has been very minor, even though I titrated up to 30mg very fast. What I don't know is whether slow titration is more important for consistent results, or whether it's more important for minimizing side effects. Surferdude mentioned several pages back that he stayed at 10mg a lot longer before moving up to 15 than he did from 5 to 10.

6) So, just to be clear, titration should go as follows: 5mg once a day, then 5mg twice a day, then 10mg and 5mg, then 10mg and 10mg, then 15mg and 10mg, then 15mg and 15mg to get back to my current dosage?

Just want to be clear that I'm approaching this with the best strategy to maximize results. If I could get memantine to work consistently the way it worked last week, I'll never have to worry about tolerance again! I always expected memantine would help with tolerance, but I didn't expect it to totally eliminate it for a full week of consistent results. I wish I had known sooner how important timing of doses is, I could have probably been a lot better off by now if I did. I have a lot of faith that memantine can eliminate tolerance, it just requires a lot of precision and dedication.

One last question: why is it that you don't space doses out evenly at 12 hours apart? It sounds the most logical for keeping consistent blood levels. I went with 10 hours today, and I'm gonna keep going with 10 hours unless you guys suggest otherwise because it seems to be the average time interval that you guys experience benefits with.

Thanks for reading this long post, I appreciate any help. I can't believe I was about to give up on memantine when it suddenly reset my tolerance last week! It's scary to think I could have deemed it useless right before finding out how much it helped me. The one thing keeping me on it was the fact that it eliminated my rebound effects. I don't get horribly depressed off of adderall anymore, and that in itself makes memantine entirely worth its weight in gold!

[zipporepairman]

Starstuff -

Thanks for your research on the mechanisms of memantine on amphetamine tolerance. I was able to deliver a very educational report to my pdoc thanks to you.

As for a titration and holiday schedule, here is what I have done and gotten fabulous results:

I stopped taking amphetamines 3 days before I began Namenda. I started at 10 mg a day, 5 mg every 12 hours. Side effects were mild and included brain fog and sleepiness.

I resumed amphetamines on day 10 of Namenda, making my holiday last for just under two weeks. Upon resuming amphetamines, I noticed my tolerance was almost completely reversed.


I stayed on 10 mg for one month before I upped to 20 mg. Over this month my amphetamine tolerance gradually returned, though not as quickly as it did pre-memantine.

I took a 7 day holiday from amphetamines when I upped to 20 mg. I have not had any problems with tolerance since.

Hope this helps.