This is just a theory, but I was wondering ...has anyone else thought of using.... or have you tried, drugs like galantamine, or any of the alzheimer's or cognitive enhancing drugs in conjunction with your antibiotics in order to ease up the neuro symptoms?? I don't mean the drugs that speed you up (like modafinil - used for MS and CFS), but cognitive enhancers.
I thought it made perfect sense. My llmd is going to discuss it with a neurologist before I see him next, but has anyone tried this?
AND!!! If so, how did it work?? Side effects?
I wondered too if anti-depressants might help with brain fog. Namely the ones for anxiety. The reason for this is I'm coming up with a theory that the anxiety generated because our brains aren't functioning assists in brain fatigue. Yet again, another theory.
Ketek has certainly helped my creative thinking return. It has been gone for over a year. I should have added that to Liz's post.
Sleepy
Because of the extreme fatigue and lethargy (and first lyme tests which were negative), I was dxed with depression 3 years ago & have taken a NUMBER of antidepressants in those years.
I can honestly say that none of them helped with the brain fog, which I really suffer from. I don't have much anxiety (more lassitude, lethargy, loss of interest in daily stuff) so I haven't tried the specific anxiolytics like Buspar, Xanax or Klonopin (although I did try Paxil with zero effect for 6 months).
I also have ADD (predating the Lyme exposure), and have taken ADD meds for years, but stopped last year when the Lyme got bad. This was before I knew it was Lyme - I've had it for c. 7 years - but I was getting really freaked out by my symptoms which I knew weren't the ADD & I felt the stimulants were just masking my underlying physiological problems.
Now that I've taken Abx for about 6 weeks, I'm feeling much better and if/when I take the ADD stims, I feel like they do what they're supposed to again, cognitively speaking.
just throwin' my experiences in the hat,
peanut
just thought i would drop a hello to my neighbor.
which doc are you working with?
drop me a line.
I was diagnosed with viral or bacterially induced ADD (I forget what the consult says). I did not have ADD symptoms until the neuro symptoms started.
I would really be interested in putting something together to see if it is effective. Even in alleviating the symptoms until the abx can do their (longer term) work!
Tks!!!
Sleepy
Sleepy,
Like many women, I've got ADHD inattentive type, with moderate hyperactivity (actually, that was one of the first symptoms of the Lyme - I really slowed down physically, but not in a good way.)
There's a kind of very specific mental exhaustion I associate with ADD - it feels like overstimulation to the point where your head is speeding up & you just have to zone out for a while or you'll explode. It's easy to get, well, ... hyper. I rush around, I constantly lose things, I interrupt people, I can't keep my house clean to save my life, I don't think I've ever paid a bill on time. All that good ol-fashioned ADD stuff. 
And ADD is attention dysregulation - so it's not just too little attention, it's also too much attention sometimes. I can go into hyperfocus on something that interests me and the house could be burning down around me and I wouldn't notice...
I take Adderall XR. I'm a teacher and it's a life-saver in terms of being able to organize. It helps my focus, calms me down. It's not the entire answer - no medication ever is - but it has certainly worked well for me. Like any other drug, you have to experiment to see which kind works for you.
ADD is a frontal-lobe disorder in which certain portions of your brain don't get the blood flow they need. The stims enable that part of your brain to get the blood it needs to function normally. This is why they have the opposite effect on someone with ADD than on a normal person: they're technically speed, and most folks would get really high -- but they calm down an ADDer because it's like turning on an "extra" part of the brain we don't otherwise get access to & we're not out there flailing around trying frantically to compensate. So it's a funny counterintuitive thing (& something that some folks don't understand when they think ADD kids are just being 'jazzed up' on the ADD meds.)
(In fact it was funny - the first ADD med I tried was Concerta, and it knocked me out cold. I was literally falling asleep at my desk. Went back to my doc and he laughed and said "Yep - it's ADD. You have enough speed in you to start a high-school riot and you can barely keep your eyes open." LOL )
So yes, I see lots of overlap between Lyme neurology and ADD. If the Lyme happens to attack the portions of gray matter that are similarly genetically deficient via ADD, it makes sense that the symptomatology is similar.
The downside of the stimulant medications, though, is that they *are* stimulants, and if someone's exhaustion is from a different physiological source (like your body fighting Lyme spirochetes), they'd just give you an artifical high. Like drinking way too much coffee. (Ritalin, concerta, adderall are all simple combinations of amphetamines).
The stimulant meds are also highly regulated (here in NY they're a Schedule II controlled substance) and you must be dxed with ADD to get them - and even then you must have a new physician-signed triplicate prescription every month (other states might not be quite as strict). They're popular on the black market as speed, so they're an illegal drug if you don't have the official dx. (I have to carry them in the actual pill bottle when I fly, for instance, in case they search me. Wild, eh?)
If your doc gives you the OK, sure, try them. I would be a tad cautious, though, since your ADD issues are new & illness-induced and not life-long. I'm no expert, but there's a chance they won't help because the origins of your symptoms might lie elsewhere. If it feels like you just took a megadose of speed instead of just sharpening your focus, I'd be careful with 'em.
Let me know how it goes, & just holler if you want me to babble away some more.
peanut
Some disagree with using drugs like these. Some docs use it for CFS. Other CFS docs don't think it is a good idea. If you do a search on it, you will get varying opinions. If you explore it, just know this so you will read on if you see the first few opinions you read are negative.
edit addition: Also keep in mind that these drugs are not amphetamines. They are a different class of drugs, and that's why they do not cause CNS symptoms.
[This message has been edited by ConnieMc (edited 08 October 2004).]
I get weekly shots of glutathione, which help my liver do its phase 2 detox more efficiently. This function is often sluggish in the chronically ill.
It helps with both brain fog and inflammation, and I can really tell when I'm late getting a shot.
quote:
Originally posted by circuspeanut:
Zippy - hey neighbor! - I see Dr. L in Highland, he's really great. After having very lukewarm experiences with others in the area, I can warmly recommend him. (Sorry, I don't know how to email folks here, could someone give me the heads-up?)
One the line with your handle name here, you'll see that some poster's have a stamped envelope as one of the icons that is on the same level as the date/time of the post. Just click it and you will go to their email addy.
But, not all of us choose to have our emails public so their dateline will not contain the stamped envelope, but, will have just the "profile, Edit and Reply w/quote."
Rosemary
I do not have the brain fog or memory loss of other Lyme sufferers. Perhaps I got lucky or perhaps the Piracetam has helped.
I buy mine from via internet from Unique Nutrition