Medication pre-dating Parkinson's Diagnosis
 

This poll is to see what, if any, prescription medication you were on before your initial PD or PD-like symptoms emerged.

interesting
 

I'm curious to see the results.

I have a comment.

Many years ago an antipsychotic was used as a tranquilizer, mostly by OBGYNs for women. It was called Stelazine. The antipsychotic dose was 5mg and up. (this was related to Compazine and Thorazine and was a dopamine antagonist like them). It is not on your list, but should be.

The doses commonly used for sedation, were 1mg or 2mg in comparison.

My aunt, the youngest of 3 sisters, was on this for a long time.
I remember when I was first licensed in the early '70s we had this drug in the fast mover shelf in bottles of 500.

Of course, slowly this was replaced by Librium and Valium and other benzos. But the older doctors clung to Stelazine for quite a while.

Well, years later, my aunt was diagnosed with beginning Parkinson's at a local teaching hospital complex. At that time she was becoming quite depressed (family issues) and sadly committed suicide. I've lived with this sad story most of my adult life... and have always thought the Stelazine was at fault.

Thank you for sharing your personal story, and I'm sorry about your loss.

I wish there was a more centralized, official way to track the benefit or harm these drugs are doing so that more people are aware of the results. I think the fact that there is not, makes it more difficult for the average person to make informed decisions about what drugs to take or not take. I think the Internet has made it finally possible to connect to others that may have the same issues or are taking the same drugs, so we can build communities to discuss our own experiences as we do on this forum ... to question these drugs and doctors ... and, in some cases, find better alternatives. I feel like I've learned so much from this community and the Internet that I know will help my mom's quality of life, whereas without these resources, we would have been much more dependent on a doctor's (limited) perspective and experience (versus 100's of actual patients with PD who live it every day and take the time to discuss it on this forum plus all the available peer-reviewed studies that many doctors don't even keep up with).

thyroid, hormones, and IBS
 

thyroid problems often accompany pd and so do hormones or lack of. you might want to add them. also i used to take little green pills after being diagnosed with Irritable Bowel syndrome.

this was before pd diagnosis and very shortly before motor pd symptoms emerged,
therefore i was on synthroid and prem forgot the rest of the word but it was a combination of estrogen and another hormone due to early menopause.

my hormone system is shutting down. its' significant and understudied.

thyroid
 

I was wrongly being treated by a doc for low thyroid-hence taking thyroid hormone for years without needing it. Apparently it zips you up a bit and makes you feel better too. In comparing notes I found that all of my friends that went to this guy were on the same regimen of thyroid/progesterone and were feeling better.

It messed up my thyroid function for many years and is now back to normal. I also do not have a uterus so did not need progesterone. This guy got kind of run out of town on a rail after all this came to light. Another common thing with pd and thyroid with more than one person. May mean nothing-or may mean something.

Something is fundamentally wrong here..
 

It is interesting to note that when the various psychiatric drug side effect databases are searched for side effects, the alarming number of incidences of Parkinsonism crop up especially with SSRIs. Can't recall the names of the sites but google the terms and they pop up.

I took Paxil just as my tremor made its world debut; I noticed that the Paxil made me more anxious and stopped it after a months or so. What scares me about these drugs is that they are intended for severe clinical depression, and they may as well be Skittles to a doctor. There is a patient run site called Crazy Meds that puts it all into perspective:

1.  Should You Be Taking Meds in the First Place?

There’s a huge paradox regarding neurological & psychiatric medications in the US and many other countries. Many people who need to take drugs can’t or won’t because the stigma - either cultural, or due to pressures and expectations of their families - is too great, and/or they don’t have the money.1 Yet there are also people who are needlessly taking meds thanks to Big Pharma’s. 2. marketing campaigns, especially to doctors, along with their disease mongering.3 And there’s always one study after another showing how antidepressants only work for those of us with severe depression.

They are not for the occasional "I feel fat" blues or feeling the "blahs" but for severe depression; the disabling "my daughter had to remind me I hadn't showered in four days" kind. Now think of how readily even your GP will whip out the prescription pad. Neurologists are no better. I can't believe that no one really knows what is going on with our other neurotransmitters, but clearly as a PD patient our biochemical profile is already whack, so I would think that they would bypass any sort of reuptake inhibitors and go old school using some of the older, tried and true tricyclic antidepressants. Nope, too seduced into the idea that newer is always better.

The med literature is replete with studies that show Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to be just as beneficial for depression and anxiety as meds and some show that therapy actually worked better than medication. The results last too. Now there is a newer form of therapy called "Behavioral Activation" complete with token rewards and all. This supposedly surpasses even meds and CBT...just sharing on the off chance this may help someone here with PD or not who is suffering from anxiety or panic. CBT worked wonders for me and really helped me regain a sense of control I had lost. I could hug my doctor for suggesting it as a treatment option.

For a real opener see the writing of Dr. Peter Breggin.

Laura

That is really scary stuff, I looked at it the other day, and thanked heaven that I have not ever taken any of those drugs. However I do know someone whose young son was put on Ritalin - he was a mess anyway, but I guess he would have grown out of it, but I don't know whether he will come back again from the drugs. I always had an anti medication attitude prior to PD, and now I am on 5 different ones, and could have been on several more if I had allowed it.

Was offered one of the sleep ones at my last neuro appointment, I politely declined (though I remember having a horrified face!) I would rather stay awake, than take the things. I know not everybody can cope with insomnia, but there has got to be better ways than a chemical cosh. Actually I think I would rather get drunk (and I don't drink.....)

Extrapolate to the whole of the drug industry........

We need to take care of what we are doing .... sorry, taking.

Lindy