I had mentioned Amantadine in my post, "Need Help", but I am now asking for input specifically about this medication...what your personal experience has been with Amantadine...sort of like a "poll" wherein I can readily see the "good vs.bad". I have read that Amantadine works well for dyskinesia which, as I wrote recently, has very SUDDENLY become an extremely troubling situation. I would just appreciate knowing about your personal/specific all-round experience with Amantadine. I feel that, with your help, I will have at least a degree of input about this medication to present to the neurologist on Friday...thank you so much.

Therese

My husb. was on Amantadine for many years. He felt better and could move easier. However, because of interactions, many meds were discontinued when he got a fungal infection and was on Fluconazol for a year. He never got a cold or flu during the time he was on it.

When he developed Hallucinations he was taken off Requip, Amantadine and Selegeline.

He is off the Flucon. now and I am going to ask his dr. about cont. the Amand.

Hope you get the answers you need. Adelle

From what you said about the Amantadine, it seems you would have me place your response to my "poll" in the "positive column". Your husband seemed to have fared well on this medication, but, because of interactions with other "meds" for other conditions, he had to stop taking all the "meds" he was taking including the Amantadine...but, now...you seem to want him to reintroduce the Amantadine because he DID so well symptom-wise while taking it. I don't have your response where I can readily refer to it, Adelle...but, did your husband have dyskinesia that was well-controlled by the Amantadine?

Thank you again, Adelle, for responding to my post. I very much appreciate it.

Therese

I reallly wish that I had a pharmacologically acceptable answer for the reason why Amantadine works so well in conjunction with Sinemet. Some call it a "Weak agonist" with few side effects. However, as apharm chemist, i see it molecularly as "a ball of fat (hydrocarbon) attached to one valence (bonding "hand")of ammonia". Not "much of a drug" when one first loooks at its structure, but nevertheless, a drug that has incredible antiviral abilities, along with it's most useful to us PWP's properties as being a "synergistic" compound when taken with sinemet.
Let me tell you my about my 10 years use of amantadine every day, at 200mg/day. At first, before my neuro wanted to give me the "sinemet test", he put me on amantadine. I woke up the next day and bounded down the ctairs and into the shower and was at work within 15 minutes like I had been for a decade before PD signs showed up. My wife commented on how "changed " i was, because it helped "striaghten out my left leaning gait, and my general mood. This all slipped away after 3 months. Then he added sinemet, and through agonist after agonist trial, the ony thing that continues to "keep me on my feet" Is 800mg of dopa plus carbidopa = sinemet, plus the amantadine. IF i try to do without it, it is like my whole response to sinemet "Goes wild". That's all i can say about it. It is an observation, and reveals no ryme nor reason about how or why amantadine oes what it does for ME. And the operative word is me, as we PWP are all different.

dear therese,

-was not on it that long?
except for the itchy red -to brightly pink bumpy rash it left all about my face arms and neck... I cant say it was a "favorite".
have you read the adverse reaction page?

PS: redrash -blotchy purple legs is an adverse reaction -not to be taken lightly...that is why the doctor took me off of it.

this is what amantadine is -
Amantadine has pharmacological actions as both an anti-Parkinson and an antiviral drug.
Each capsule intended for oral administration contains 100 mg amantadine hydrochloride and the following inactive ingredients: Croscarmellose sodium, Ethylcellulose, FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Red 40, Gelatin, Magnesium stearate, Methylparaben, Microcrystalline cellulose, Pregelatinized starch, Propylparaben, Silicon dioxide, Sodium lauryl sulfate and Titanium dioxide.


http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/amantadine_cp.htm

adverse reactions
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/amantadine_ad.htm

warnings:
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/amantadine_wcp.htm

overdose:
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/amantadine_od.htm


to me the drugs are only an in case of having "No acceptable life"
that is until I figure out my kind of PD, to dispose of all of the med's.
my greatest hope...
luv,

and too late for Friday appointment, but I will tell you anyway: Amantadine is wonderful.
At 100 mg per day it keeps my tremor under control, keeps dystonia away, helps my arm swing and gives me back my balance.
I love Amantadine! It does make my ankles purple, but that is a small price to pay for all its benefits.
I stopped taking it because of vanity - summer, sandals and bare ankles - and had a very unpleasant return of all the above symptoms.
I tried to substitute another half pill of 25/100 carb/lev for the Amantadine, but it didn't help, it only gave me offs. With Amantadine I don't have offs. As soon as I took Amantadine again, I felt as well as I did before I stopped it. I've cut out the extra carb/lev half pill now, I don't need more than 3 half carb/lev pills a day when I take Amantadine.
Absolutely positive here. I recommend it highly.

birte

Sinemet alone never stopped my tremors. Added Amantadine and they disappeared. Come to think of it, maybe I will try one day on Amantadine alone!

Ann

to try to "go off" of sinemet once you are on it, even for a short time, see "Neuromalignant syndrome" in a web search. Many of us who have been "just fed up with it all, have tried to go off their medications, and found themselves in the emergecy rooom at their local hospital.
Remember, any answer that you get on this forun is only the personal opinions of one person,it cannot be stressed any more that we as PWP are all so very, very different in the way PD affects each of us. The "red spiderveins" called "livedo reticularis", which usuallly occur around the ankles form taking amantadine are not to thought of as a "blood clot risk". In my case, they just up and dissappeared one day, not too long ago. The other drug related bad symptom that I can attribute to Amantadine is blurred vision. For me, it has stabilised , and I can still drive without glasses.
There are many here who will say that amantadine is just "not for them", and others who say that they "just don't do as well without it". WE KNOW how our bodies feel, they are our bodies, and nobody can tell you otherwise. If you do badly on one drug who was suggested by a good friend who is doing great on it, don't continue taking it if your body tells you "i don't like this stuff". Sometimes though, one has to try a bit harder and will find that, maybe they were taking too much too fast, and when they try to go back on a particular drug, slowly and in small doses, it seems like a totally diffferent experience. It's a long strange journey, but there is an "optimum" cocktail of anti-PD drugs for each one of us. It just takes a long time and a lot of trial and error.

who have so far responded to my post related to Amantadine...absolutely wonderful input.....

Ol'cs...What a response! It was somewhat technical, in part, but I seemed to understand what you were saying and found it to be so interesting. Your own experience with Amantadine definitely speaks to the possibility (even probability) of this medication being beneficial for Doreen, i.e., taken along with the Sinemet that she already takes. Interestingly, what you said about trying to do without the Amantadine, i.e., without it, your whole response to Sinemet "goes wild". This seems to be precisely what's happened to Doreen...the Sinemet that has worked very effectively for her now seems to have "gone wild". I understand very well that this is YOUR personal experience, Ol'cs...and what works for one may NOT work for another...this is the nature of this "designer disease"...but, on the otherhand, it just may be that it COULD and MAY work for Doreen so that it seems we have nothing to lose and possibly something to gain by trying the Amantadine. Your response definitely places you in the "positive column" of my "poll"...thanks so much...

...and Tena...thank you for the links to: adverse reactions, warnings and overdose...definitely worth taking my time to read these...thank you....

...and Birte...what a positive "vote" for Amantadine! I really had to smile when you said: "I love Amantadine!!!" You mentioned being able to cut back on the Sinemet when taking Amantadine. That would definitely be our aim, too in that Sinemet is often the "culprit" that causes the undesirable dyskinesis...and your post will be placed in my "poll's" positive column!!!

...and Annt2...you, too, are a "fan" of Amantadine...thus, your response, too, will be placed in my "poll's" positive column.

Thank you all so much for responding to my post...so very much appreciated. I am notating all your responses to take with me to the neurologist on Friday.

Therese

I did not know you could not just quit Sinemet. I did know that about Amantadine though. I appreciate your advice - always.

Ann