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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Xavier47 on March 6, 2004, at 17:01:39
Since I had minor surgery (general anaesthesia) I have been unable to read or think for more then 10 minutes at a time. When I try to read or think some of the symptoms are: my mind simply stops, gets confused. I get nausea and lose tone in upper extremities. I am aware of what is going on but I am unable to respond for several minutes. Then I come back as if nothing happened and resume my activity. Experts have confirmed that it is not epilepsy, narcolepsy, migraine variants, psychological (conversion/anxiety). In other words, after EEG's, sleep tests, MRI's, EMG's, blood tests, ECG's,...nothing shows. The only evidence was found on SPECT which showed minor increased perfusion in the right hippocampus. But it was not indicative of epilepsy. I am just providing the above to let you know that the two drugs, aricept and dexedrine were the only drugs, only taken together, which allowed me to function normally. Neither of them helped when taken by itself. Only taken together did they work. The best way for me to describe it is to say that aricept kind of cleared up the mental roadblock and dexedrine started pushing the thinking. Nobody knows why this worked. Manufacturer of Aricept (Pfizer) has no ideas. So, it was recommended that I join this board and ask. Here I am. The unfortunate part is that the combination worked for about 4 months and then stopped. Any ideas why this worked? By the way I still do not have a diagnosis. According to most of the doctors it is a brand new disorder. It has stumped the medical community. Before this I was in excellent health. Your input would be appreciated.
Posted by Sad Panda on March 8, 2004, at 3:24:45
In reply to Combination of Aricept and Dexedrine, posted by Xavier47 on March 6, 2004, at 17:01:39
> Since I had minor surgery (general anaesthesia) I have been unable to read or think for more then 10 minutes at a time. When I try to read or think some of the symptoms are: my mind simply stops, gets confused. I get nausea and lose tone in upper extremities. I am aware of what is going on but I am unable to respond for several minutes. Then I come back as if nothing happened and resume my activity. Experts have confirmed that it is not epilepsy, narcolepsy, migraine variants, psychological (conversion/anxiety). In other words, after EEG's, sleep tests, MRI's, EMG's, blood tests, ECG's,...nothing shows. The only evidence was found on SPECT which showed minor increased perfusion in the right hippocampus. But it was not indicative of epilepsy. I am just providing the above to let you know that the two drugs, aricept and dexedrine were the only drugs, only taken together, which allowed me to function normally. Neither of them helped when taken by itself. Only taken together did they work. The best way for me to describe it is to say that aricept kind of cleared up the mental roadblock and dexedrine started pushing the thinking. Nobody knows why this worked. Manufacturer of Aricept (Pfizer) has no ideas. So, it was recommended that I join this board and ask. Here I am. The unfortunate part is that the combination worked for about 4 months and then stopped. Any ideas why this worked? By the way I still do not have a diagnosis. According to most of the doctors it is a brand new disorder. It has stumped the medical community. Before this I was in excellent health. Your input would be appreciated.
>
>Hi Xavier,
Can I ask how old you are & how long ago did you have surgery? It's sort of sounds like epilepsy with ADD. Have you tried any epilepsy drugs like trileptal, lamictal?
Cheers,
Panda.
Posted by Xavier47 on March 8, 2004, at 13:49:26
In reply to Re: Combination of Aricept and Dexedrine, posted by Sad Panda on March 8, 2004, at 3:24:45
Panda, thanks for your reply. I am in my 40's. This has been going on for about 5 years now. I can have up to 20 attacks and sometimes more per day. I have been tested for epilepsy many, many times and I have had the episodes during testing. The only seizure medication that worked was valproic acid but that was stopped because of side effects, no diangois, wearing off. In terms of the other drugs, trileptal, I did not have it but I had one of its relatives: carbapamezine (?). I recall taking it and the attacks were much, much worse. I also tried neurontin and dilantin- both made the siutation worse. Lamictal did not help at all. I do not have ADD and other ADD medications (ritalin, modafinil) made the situation much worse. I have been to many neurologists who are on staff at various universities and nobody can figure out why this combination works for these symptoms and they certainly cannot figure out what is wrong with me. I guess that my hope is that if someone can figure out why this works, for these symptoms, then we can get other medications to do the same thing and go from there. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I should say something that I forgot. I was on deprenyl to try to treat some of the symptoms and it was 60% effective for about 6 months and then that was it. We tried playing with the dosage and taking drug holidays but it did not help.
Posted by sb417 on March 10, 2004, at 0:09:16
In reply to Combination of Aricept and Dexedrine, posted by Xavier47 on March 6, 2004, at 17:01:39
Hi Xavier. I'm sorry to hear you've been having so much difficulty. May I ask when you had your minor surgery, and what was it for? Do you know what kind of general anesthesia you had and for how long? Do you have a copy of your operative report? Were you given other medications at the time of the surgery? You mentioned that you'd had a SPECT scan. Have you had PET scans as well? If so, what did they show?
Have you given up on the Aricept+Dexedrine combination or will you try them again? Did you try different dosages of each? Did you try increasing the dosages? I wonder whether both pooped out or just one of the two?
Posted by redben40 on May 11, 2016, at 23:05:05
In reply to Combination of Aricept and Dexedrine, posted by Xavier47 on March 6, 2004, at 17:01:39
> Since I had minor surgery (general anaesthesia) I have been unable to read or think for more then 10 minutes at a time. When I try to read or think some of the symptoms are: my mind simply stops, gets confused. I get nausea and lose tone in upper extremities. I am aware of what is going on but I am unable to respond for several minutes. Then I come back as if nothing happened and resume my activity. Experts have confirmed that it is not epilepsy, narcolepsy, migraine variants, psychological (conversion/anxiety). In other words, after EEG's, sleep tests, MRI's, EMG's, blood tests, ECG's,...nothing shows. The only evidence was found on SPECT which showed minor increased perfusion in the right hippocampus. But it was not indicative of epilepsy. I am just providing the above to let you know that the two drugs, aricept and dexedrine were the only drugs, only taken together, which allowed me to function normally. Neither of them helped when taken by itself. Only taken together did they work. The best way for me to describe it is to say that aricept kind of cleared up the mental roadblock and dexedrine started pushing the thinking. Nobody knows why this worked. Manufacturer of Aricept (Pfizer) has no ideas. So, it was recommended that I join this board and ask. Here I am. The unfortunate part is that the combination worked for about 4 months and then stopped. Any ideas why this worked? By the way I still do not have a diagnosis. According to most of the doctors it is a brand new disorder. It has stumped the medical community. Before this I was in excellent health. Your input would be appreciated.
I too have the same issues as you and was helped by Aricept for a few months which was awesome. Did you find out any other solutions?
This is the end of the thread.
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