Memantine experience so far....

[ideaman]

Originally Posted by surferdude123

ideaman

if you're taking divided doses don't take the last dose close to when you go to bed. it can be a little stimulating.

and synthroid can cause a high BP and widened pulse pressure, I;m not aware of any adverse effects of memantine on BP, I have seen it prescribed in hospital to dementia patients on two pages of meds and they seem fine. but as always discuss anything with your doctor.


let us know how things go ok?

hi surferdude!

Right now I'm taking 10mg in a single dose in the morning. And yes, it is stimulating, in a good way. I am still experiencing some insomnia and constipation, but nothing major. I plan to stay on 10 mg for two weeks (as you suggest) and then consider upping to 15mgs.

You're right, synthroid did raise my BP considerably, but this has settled down completely - so has my level of energy, sadly. I seem to think clearer with higher BP - the same thing happens during exercise, too bad I can't run with laptop wired to my brain

You're still on 20mgs once daily, right? Are you taking any adderral on the side?

Thanks!

[hanzsolo]

Hi surferdude,

Hope all is well with you

I have a few questions whenever you have a moment;

1. I know you had recommended i stop wellbutrin before starting mem but I was unable to do so. That being said, do you see any issues with my being on wellbutrin while I start (and titrate) my memantine dose ?? I ask because your recommendations are to stop all stimulants for at least a week when starting memantine... I hope this will not negatively affect anything...

2. Should I stop taking the 300mg of chelated magnesium that I take every evening now ??

3. Would you recommend I stay at 5mg for awhile to see how it interacts with my regime, or move to 10mg in 1 week? And if move to 10, should i do 5mg morning /5mg evening, or 10mg in the morning ??

4. As i had mentioned, i tried cipralex a few weeks back and got weird feelings every time I took my stimulants, not sure why (maybe too much serotonin ??). Would you recommend I give it another try? My goal is to taper off clonazepam ASAP (but need something else for my anxiety) and of course to taper Wellbutrin as well (but I need either wellbutrin or an SSRI in the mix since they constipate me and indirectly help my ulcerative colitis among other things of course).. I have been on cipralex in the past and it was the best of all the SSRI/SNRIs that I had tried (pre-stims), and know they mesh well with the memantine. What would you do ??

5. You had said that memantine + wellbutrin + my stimulants may be DA and NE overload, but i am on low doses of wellbutrin (150mg), low doses of stimulants (10-15mg) plus will probably test low doses of memantine also. Do you think this may possibly be ok ?? Don't the stimulants fire off serotonin as well? And doesn't memantine antagonize the serotonin receptors? I ask because I don't want my neurotransmitters (the olympic rings as you put it --- love the analogy LOL) our of balance i.e. too little serotonin etc...

Let me know your thoughts, and thanks again so much for all your help and support.....

Have a great weekend

[Anthony121]

So, I'm up to 40 mg of memantine a day..

It's unbelievable how great I feel.. They make me feel so wonderful that I would have no issue paying 400 bucks a month for these pills when i lose my health insurance at the end of the year( i need a better job).. I only started feeling this way when I started the 40 mgs a day. I started taking 40 mgs because I heard it was the recommended mg to take to fully get rid of depression and all that crap and I believe them.. I feel like every positive emotion I have went up 50% and all the negatives emotions i had went down 50 %.. My memory is so much, much better.. It no longer takes 5 times to reread something to remember what I just read. I love interacting with people way more.. WAY, WAY, more.. I used to dread interacting with people.. especially with people I didn't know. My comfort zone was in my room listening to music.. Not, any god dam more.. I am more excited about life than I ever was. I'm so happy I found these forums even more this thread..


I feel kind of sad right now. But, not in a negative way, but in a joyful way.. I just feel as if something finally clicked into my head and my brain, I finally feel as if everything is going to be ok.. I feel at peace.. Like, I can finally do positive things in my life to make it mean something..

Also, the things I enjoyed before.. I feel like I enjoy them twice more..


I still notice my OCD of putting two peroids of every sentence I finsh.. I have to work on that..

[ideaman]

Day two on 15mgs and I am disappointed big time. As opposed to the gentle yet important stimulation I felt on 5 and 10 mgs, now I feel somewhat sedated and dreamy. This might be the brainfog that everyone is talking about. Still, it's different from how I felt on 15mgs the first time I tried it a few months ago. I am considering going back to 10 mgs.

[zipporepairman]

Update: I'm up to 40 mg now, 20 mg every 12 hrs. Medication continues to work effectively after 75 days of not missing a single dose. Altered my stimulant regimen a bit as follows:
Sunday stimulant holiday
Vyvanse 25mg 8 am Monday
Vyvanse 50mg 8 am Tuesday
Vyvanse 50mg 8 am Wednesday
Vyvanse 50mg 8 am Thursday
Vyvanse 25mg 8 am Friday
Saturday stimulant holiday

I upped my stimulant doses after a week on 40mg as it seemed 15 mg vyvanse was blunted at this dose. This schedule seems to work well for me. If I take 50mg straight away on
Monday I get anxiety and other negative overstimulation side effects. The holiday gives my receptors time to reset and recuperate and for me to get the most restful sleep possible.

[Focus Pokus]

Originally Posted by ideaman

Day two on 15mgs and I am disappointed big time. As opposed to the gentle yet important stimulation I felt on 5 and 10 mgs, now I feel somewhat sedated and dreamy. This might be the brainfog that everyone is talking about. Still, it's different from how I felt on 15mgs the first time I tried it a few months ago. I am considering going back to 10 mgs.

I hear you loud and clear, with full understanding of your concern. Exercise patience, ideaman. The med has a relatively long half-life of 70-85 hours I believe, which I think is why memantine acclimation is such a slow process--or at least it was for me.

But take heart; I do know from personal experience exactly what you are talking about regarding uneasiness/discomfort/weirdness at the new dose.

It's difficult to refrain from making definitive assessments at each stage-- nonetheless I contend that you are waaay premature to be assessing 15mg after only 2 days. (Give it 2 WEEKS of consistent, same dosing time(s) each day and then let's compare notes--- I believe that you will see exactly what I mean).

The difference in effects which you mentioned experiencing at 15mg 'now' versus same dose 'a few months ago' could be attributable to any number of factors: sleep quantity/quality, consistency of dosing schedule... to name a couple.

If it helps to reassure you at all, please know that I just now went back and checked my email draft/ journal notes from about 6 months ago -- and at your current 10mg > 15mg titration stage (I actually moved in smaller increment of 10mg > 12.5mg) I was experiencing ALL KINDS of various effects on any given day.... a veritable zig-zagging all over the spectrum of ....uncomfortable....to calm,well-tolerated......to moderately anxiety-inducing.....to peaceful........to sleepy...etc. ---> all within the SAME DAY, seriously. Nothing so worrisome that I ever felt loss of control, or inability to drive a car safely or anything like that but definitely were some gyrations at any new dosing level for me, no matter how small the increase from previous dosing level.

But always-- after 1.5 to 2 weeks at any given titration stage--- ALL memantine effects fell into place very well. I can honestly say that after approx. 10 - 14 days at a particular titration stage, I found that all negative effects vanished and were replaced with all positives.

I know it is cumbersome to perform razor-blade surgery in splitting the tablets-- but I would suggest to you to possibly go with 12.5mg for 7 consecutive days, then 15mg for 14 days; for me at least, even this small 2.5mg change made an appreciable difference in my positive experience when titrating at your 10 >> 15 milligram level. [**it may help if you consider the upward titration in terms of percentages-- going from 10mg to 15mg is a 50% greater dose whereas 10mg >> 12.5mg is a 25% increase, and later on 15mg >> 20mg is only a 33% uptick, 20mg >> 25mg is ^25%, etc.].

Take it slow, be patient....titrate slowly, give it time.... give it time.

[ideaman]

Focus Pocus thank you very much! I actually went here to check whether anyone had responded. It's now day three @15mgs and I still felt weird for the better part of the day, especially two-three hours after ingestion in the morning I was very mentally slow and definitely a bit "dumber."
I have decided to go back to 10mgs for another week at least - I have to travel out of state for my job tomorrow, I will be renting a car and driving long distance, so I'd rather play it safe.
I will consider taking it up in smaller increments as you suggest. As I said, I am puzzled by my different reaction this time at dose increase. I have really looked for the gentle stimulating / energizing effect - and got sedation and loss of mental acuity instead.
I will be back when I am back home in a week and will report how I feel. Thanks again!

[ideaman]

P.S. I also wonder whether twice-a-day dosing wouldn't be the way to go above 10mgs in my case (in view of my reaction.)

[hanzsolo]

Hi all,

Day 6 today @ 5mg and didn't have much brain fog..

I am increasing to 10mg tomorrow and was wondering; should I split the dose in half ?? And if yes, do they need to be 12 hours apart ?? Or is 9-10 hours ok? The reason I ask is because I take my first dose at 7am and am worried a dose at 7pm may stimulate me too much at night..

Any feedback would be much appreciated
Thanks

[surferdude123]

Originally Posted by Anthony121

So, I'm up to 40 mg of memantine a day..

It's unbelievable how great I feel.. They make me feel so wonderful that I would have no issue paying 400 bucks a month for these pills when i lose my health insurance at the end of the year( i need a better job).. I only started feeling this way when I started the 40 mgs a day. I started taking 40 mgs because I heard it was the recommended mg to take to fully get rid of depression and all that crap and I believe them.. I feel like every positive emotion I have went up 50% and all the negatives emotions i had went down 50 %.. My memory is so much, much better.. It no longer takes 5 times to reread something to remember what I just read. I love interacting with people way more.. WAY, WAY, more.. I used to dread interacting with people.. especially with people I didn't know. My comfort zone was in my room listening to music.. Not, any god dam more.. I am more excited about life than I ever was. I'm so happy I found these forums even more this thread..


I feel kind of sad right now. But, not in a negative way, but in a joyful way.. I just feel as if something finally clicked into my head and my brain, I finally feel as if everything is going to be ok.. I feel at peace.. Like, I can finally do positive things in my life to make it mean something..

Also, the things I enjoyed before.. I feel like I enjoy them twice more..


I still notice my OCD of putting two peroids of every sentence I finsh.. I have to work on that..

Things will be ok, and it sounds like you're on the right path. Good work!

[surferdude123]

Hanzsolo

nice to hear from you. I've followed your posts the past little while and will say for the most part I think you're on the right track. I'll make a couple suggestions I hope you might may help you.

How are things going overall for you?

1) Titrate slower than you are, despite the little amounts of brain fog, Fokus Pokus is very smart with this method, and he reiterates what I say about a slow titration due to the half life of the the medicine. You could go 5mg for 14 days, then 10mg for a while.

2) I am not a fan of Welbutrin/Zyban because of it's effects on DA. For legal reasons, I cannot tell you to come off of it that, but I would talk to your doctor about switching to another SSRI, I tend to favor Lexapro/Cipralex, Effexor XR, and Cymbalta. The psychiatrist I discussed this with feels the same way, because the primary targets for us, are the frontotemporal lobes, 5HT3, NE, and DA. For some reason, people who take Wellbutrin, don't seem to get along with Memantine that well in the long run, Please consider this.

3) Again, the timing of the dose is extremely important, and others here will tell you consistency is key. For example 7am, and 7pm, or if it keeps you awake, 7am, and 5pm, for example, every day, If you miss a day, remember it will affect the half life for the following days, and not to double up.

4) Gradually introduce your stimulants into the regimen, because you want to prevent OVERSTIMULATION.

5) I found that after about 6 months, it seemed as though the Memantine just "stopped working" so I went off of it, and found that it made such a huge difference, that the "not working" was actually just my brain being normalized.

6) Diet and exercise, please ensure you try to get regular diet and exercise, you will want to stay away from drugs that alkalinize the urine, because that affects memantine, i.e. Baking soda, certain fruits, vegetables. Don't make drastic changes to your diet.

7) Drink plenty of water, stimulants dehydrate, and we're 65-70% water, and our brains are very "watery" as well as fat, protein, and glucose.


8) Why the Clonaz, + Seroquel + Zopiclone? Drop the Benzos, and alternate between Seroquel, and/or Ambien. Eventually you will find if you have GAD, that the Memantine will eliminate a lot of your anxiety, the uppers and downers conflict, and while I totally promote medication, try your best to limit what you take and find other ways of managing.


Best of luck.

[hanzsolo]

Originally Posted by surferdude123

Hanzsolo

nice to hear from you. I've followed your posts the past little while and will say for the most part I think you're on the right track. I'll make a couple suggestions I hope you might may help you.

How are things going overall for you?

1) Titrate slower than you are, despite the little amounts of brain fog, Fokus Pokus is very smart with this method, and he reiterates what I say about a slow titration due to the half life of the the medicine. You could go 5mg for 14 days, then 10mg for a while.

2) I am not a fan of Welbutrin/Zyban because of it's effects on DA. For legal reasons, I cannot tell you to come off of it that, but I would talk to your doctor about switching to another SSRI, I tend to favor Lexapro/Cipralex, Effexor XR, and Cymbalta. The psychiatrist I discussed this with feels the same way, because the primary targets for us, are the frontotemporal lobes, 5HT3, NE, and DA. For some reason, people who take Wellbutrin, don't seem to get along with Memantine that well in the long run, Please consider this.

3) Again, the timing of the dose is extremely important, and others here will tell you consistency is key. For example 7am, and 7pm, or if it keeps you awake, 7am, and 5pm, for example, every day, If you miss a day, remember it will affect the half life for the following days, and not to double up.

4) Gradually introduce your stimulants into the regimen, because you want to prevent OVERSTIMULATION.

5) I found that after about 6 months, it seemed as though the Memantine just "stopped working" so I went off of it, and found that it made such a huge difference, that the "not working" was actually just my brain being normalized.

6) Diet and exercise, please ensure you try to get regular diet and exercise, you will want to stay away from drugs that alkalinize the urine, because that affects memantine, i.e. Baking soda, certain fruits, vegetables. Don't make drastic changes to your diet.

7) Drink plenty of water, stimulants dehydrate, and we're 65-70% water, and our brains are very "watery" as well as fat, protein, and glucose.


8) Why the Clonaz, + Seroquel + Zopiclone? Drop the Benzos, and alternate between Seroquel, and/or Ambien. Eventually you will find if you have GAD, that the Memantine will eliminate a lot of your anxiety, the uppers and downers conflict, and while I totally promote medication, try your best to limit what you take and find other ways of managing.


Best of luck.

Thanks so much for the reply surfer, MUCH appreciated

If you don't mind I will answer in point form (as you did) so it all makes sense.. And I am doing great overall thanks for asking

1) I actually started an additional 5mg today at 4pm (so am taking 10mg total) since I was not having much brain fog and it's 6 days in (yes I have ADD and am impulsive so didn't wait until the 7th day LOL).. But I will stay at 10mg for at least one month and let things get stable..

2) Of course I totally understand and respect the fact that you cannot tell me to stop a med. And I do understand the potential implications with the wellbutrin /memantine. The problem with stopping is that the W has constipated me, which indirectly helps my UC a lot - I know it's totally unrelated but important nonetheless. SSRIs also constipate me so I can definitely start lexapro and taper wellbutrin, but this is my latest experience - - - - a month or so ago I started lexapro for 1 week, and every time I took my adderall or dexedrine, I felt very off and strange (I feel it was too much serotonin throwing me off).. And by the end of the first week I felt really off and had to discontinue the lexapro altogether. I have used lexapro in the past without stimulants (along with every other SSRI and SNRI) and had no issues, so know that it's due to the stimulant/SSRI combo. Any thoughts or suggestions here ??
* I guess another alternative is to stay on the wellbutrin and see how it works for me in combination with the mem, before making any more changes (tapering wellbutrin, starting SSRI) that may throw me even more off balance.. I feel pretty stable and good now so hate to make changes. But I am torn because of the possible implications staying on it. See my dilemma LOL? ADD at it's finest, I go on all day about this (and things like this)...

3) Got it, I am dosing at 7am and 4pm. Is this ok ??

4) Yes will introduce the stimulants very gradually, and am already on a low dose. Agreed the last thing I need is overstimulation...

5) Can't wait for that

6) I do cardio and weights 3-4x per week and eat fairly healthy, thanks for the tips on diet

7) I drink 2-3 litres of water per day

8) I am in canada so not sure we have ambien ?? I was using zopiclone to rotate with seroquel so there are no tolerance issues. Both are for sleep. As for the benzo issue (clonazepam), I will have to taper as I tried to stop it altogether last week, and by the 5th day off I unfortunately had bad withdrawal symptoms. And this is after only 2 months of daily usage 0.5mg x3 per day so 1.5mg/day total along with rotating with lyrica every 10-14 days. I understand the memantine may help with this also, will taper slowly. I really do not like benzos, agreed. And I hope the mem will help my GAD, which I unfortunately have in spades

And YES, I totally agree on limiting my medication and taking as few as possible.. Will start with the clonazepam taper (replace with SSRI and/or mem for GAD) and hopefully taper the wellbutrin as well. I recently started some CBT courses, started meditating listening to jon kabat-zinn, and am exercising regularly as mentioned.

Thanks again so much for your time and efforts here, I feel I am on the right track here thanks to you (and all the other contributors to this thread) and am very grateful

Hanz

[surferdude123]

Hanzsolo

from the looks of things you're on a great track. CBT+Meditation+stable medication regimen with trying for a good diet and exercise is the best in my opinion.

If you don't have Ambien available in Canada, try to stick with low dose Zopiclone or the Seroquel for sleep, but keep in mind, that Seroquel has side effects like Dyslipidemias, elevated liver transaminases, weight gain, and pre-metabolic syndrome states. I also found with Seroquel it made my mouth very dry at night.

Hence for this, I prefer Ambien and/or other Hypnotics, however, even that is less than ideal, because it's not a natural sleep. Try your hardest for a natural sleep.

For myself, I've switched to Xanax at night, 1mg, because I was tired of the Zopiclone, and the Seroquel, and I'm out of Ambien. However, my issues with GAD are similar with regards to Anxiety as well.

You may find that trying either Lexapro or Effexor XR actually helps IBS/UC/Crohn's symptoms, I know it helps me with mine, the chief transmitter of the gut is Serotonin so going on an SSRI can help alleviate this, but talk to your doctor, about switching off of wellbutrin.....

Your dosing seems fine.

Otherwise things look good. Keep us updated here, both good and bad. It's important for all of us to keep the feedback going.


Take care.

[hanzsolo]

Hi surfer thanks for the reply, your time, and all your valuable advice..

Yes am trying to manage my issues (ADD, GAD, etc) from all angles with and without meds, so the CBT+meditation+gym+diet has also helped quite a bit.

I will inquire about ambien, don't think we have it up here in canada.. I can always get a script though and drive to plattsburgh NY to get it filled, I may consider that...

And yes I am aware of the mile long list of seroquel side effects unfortunately, that's why I alternate with zopiclone in the hopes that i won't get some of them ???
I don't know, I used to have trouble falling asleep + wake up 3-5x per night (without sleeping pills) and now sleep through the night. Granted I don't feel fully rested when i wake up, but at least it's not little cat naps all night... So far all my blood tests have been normal, but if that changes at some point then I will definitely consider altering my regime somewhat..

How do you find xanax works compared to immovane ?? Apparently immovane is slightly less addictive than benzos but very similar, so I'd like to get off all of them at some point... Wikipedia calls zopiclone a benzo in disguise haha.. Interesting way to put it... I totally agree though, natural sleep would be best. Kind of difficult now though being on stimulants.. Not to mention all SSRI /SNRi or Wellbutrin all give me very vivid dreams.. + mem they are even more vivid now...

I will speak to my pdoc on next visit about swapping wellbutrin for some lexapro or effexor... Interesting about serotonin in the gut, you teach me something new every post, love it

And yes I will keep you all posted on the good and the bad of course, agreed it's very important to keep the feedback going... I have read all 35 pages of this thread 2-3x already and really appreciate and value everyone sharing their experiences..

So now for some GOOD NEWS --- I am day 8 on memantine, have not resumed any stimulants yet, and feel FANTASTIC !!! I rate every morning, afternoon and evening (out of 10) and rarely get 9/10 or 10/10 unless I'm on stimulants + clonazepam (and even then it isn't consistent due to stim tolerance etc). But lo and behold, I hit 9s and 10s the last few days on some mornings and afternoons...

AND SOME EVEN BETTER NEWS - - - I have reduced both my clonazepam dosage and my sleeping pills. Not because I had to, but because I didn't feel that I needed them. Big difference.. Tolerance is already reducing, meds are more effective (I had a coffee and felt the stimulation, plus can feel the clonazepam much more), and I feel good..

Have lots of energy, better mood, see things clearer, AND zero brain fog (yet) from the 5-10mg mem titration.. What can I say, so far so good... I know it's only 8 days and some may say it's placebo, but I can say that I DEFINITELY notice a positive difference already.. Surfer you said it best, I feel "crisp" and "on the ball". That's exactly what my journal says...

Will keep everyone posted, thanks surfer, you're most definitely on to something really big here and I couldn't of done this without your documentation and help... I know it's not for everyone, needs to be dosed properly, and it's not a magic pill. But so far, I feel it's pretty damn close...

Have a great long weekend all

[Anthony121]

Does anyone know if you can take memantine and 5-htp together?

I couldn't find the answer while using google...

I'm want to get off ambien..