First some news from the world of Modern Medicine
Tea continues accumulating positive benefits. However, in addition to the usual caveats on news of this kind, this was not a controlled double blind study so there is probably correlation but not necessarily causation. If there is a valid link though, I'm set. I LIVE on tea!
On the other hand, eating lots of fiber seems not to protect against colo-rectal cancer after all. However, fiber is still good for your heart and to lower risk of diabetes so eat more raw fruits, vegetables, and whole grains!
On to more personal medical news (or; it's all about ME):
I scored very high on an adult ADD inventory on my last visit to the neuropharmacologist. We'll discuss it more on my next visit (tomorrow), but in the meantime, I'd like to hear from other adult ADDers out there. How were you diagnosed? Did you suffer from depression too? How do you treat it medically? What non medical things can one do to alleviate the problems?
As you know, Bob, I have very bad neurochemistry (bad brain! no doughnut!). The meds have pooped out again and I've gone off Effexor completely (fortunately no withdrawal symptoms!) and have changed to Cymbalta. While I'm doing better than I was, say August-October, I'm still not feeling really spiffy. So we've added an atypical antipsychotic to the mix. These are often used as mood stabilizers for bipolor disorder (which I have as bipolar II; no full blown mania). The one I'm taking is a very new one called Abilify. I'd be interested in hearing from other Abilify users. I'm having trouble sleeping and suffering from some rather bizarre nausea (it only happens when I eat) and I'm wondering if anyone has had these side effects from taking the drug. It's so new there isn't much known about side effects in the wild We added it because it inhibits dopamine reuptake. The Cymbalta is working on seritonin and norephinephrine reuptake so dopamine sounded like the thing to try next. I wonder how an adult ADD diagnosis would affect all this other neurochemistry. Sigh. Man I wish I had a brain that worked.
Here's hoping for an increase in your spiffiness index.
My psychopharmacology refs are in another state, but I'm pretty sure that Abilify is currently the bees' knees because it usually has fewer funky side effects than a lot of the other mood stabilizers. That's fewer, not none. Seratonin and dopamine shouldn't have that much involvement with the ADD, but there's about three really good models for ADD that don't agree on mechanism at all, so all bets are off there. Sorry about that.
Yes, there is a high correlation between ADD and depression. Years of being told you're stupid because you can't focus for too long can do that. There are some medication and non-medication treatments for adults with good track records, but side effects and dosages for the drugs can get tricky. I'd have to poke at some of my textbooks for more.
Would you believe I gafiated to get a grad degree is psychology?
Posted by: David Owen-Cruise | December 15, 2005 at 08:59 AM