I wanted to share this especially as there was discussion about mestinon inceasing anxiety, nervousness. I was part of that here. I ran across this piece by accident this morn but as it was written from a pharmacist perspective with fair detail I was taken by it. The other piece for me is that I have been wondering off and on if the 'ho-hum' attitude of the young neuro I had at univeristy (and a couple others) about my response to mestinon meaing little has anything to do with mestinons use in the Gulf WAr. To me such a large 'experiment' like that, giving healthy soldiers this drug would HAVE an effect of deluting our reality when we have a geniunely good response to the drug.

I dont intend to get a big conversation going here on Gulf war syndrome so please dont take it that way. I am posting the comment by the pharmacist whose husband had to take the mestinon during the war. She talked to the chemist at the company that makes mestinon in an attempt to help her husband.

"Kimberly M 5 months ago

I am a pharmacy professional and when my husband was in the gulf, he told me he was taking something called NAP pills. It was not until he came home that I realized they were Pyridostigmine. He explained the dosing instructions to me, which I knew to be contrary to the normal prescribing regiment. I contacted the company that invented the brand name drug, Mestinon, and spoke with one of the chemists who works on that specific medication. His thoughts were concerns over the loading dose, and the multiple abrupt starting and stoping of this medication. There was no data on the impact on the brain if someone abruptly discontinued this medication. A person with Myasthenia Gravis would take this medication for the rest of their lives once they started. Only discontinuing if they developed an allergic reaction which would happen, usually within the first 72 hours. The doses my husband took were significantly higher than normally prescribed and he took them as directed by the Army, starting and stopping many, many times based on the threat level of incoming. Just a thought, one possible way to reverse some of the impact on the brain could be to begin a regiment of the medication, again, achieving similar doses to what was taken in Saudi, then properly titrate off of the medication over an extended period of time. My husband took his own life 15 months ago, so I have no one to present this to the VA on their behalf. If anyone tries this or speaks to the doctors about it, let me know."

http://hubpages.com/hub/Gulf-War-Ill...-Bromide-Pills