Dopamine / Psychostimulants
 

Hello all.

I find that anything directly dopaminergic will, on its own cure almost all of the pain I experience better than anything else I have found. Is this true for other folks here?

(methylphenidate/Ritalin, amphetamine/dextroamphetamine/Adderall), bupropion/Wellbutrin to a certain extent.

This leads me to believe that:

a) Fibromyalgia is a dopaminergic disorder with roots in the D2 system as a deficiency
b) misdiagnosis (though mine only 2 test points were not strongly positive)

Comments and experiences?

-vv

Cure? or relieve? Please explain more. Most research shows this starts in the CNS.

Not sure how long ago this was posted, or if the OP is even going to see this. But I have this exact same positive to reaction to anything dopaminergic. Zoloft, I'm told, also has a slight effect on increasing the production of D2 dopamine and I've had somewhat good results with that as well.

The problem I'm having is that (besides some nasty side-effects) these drugs work for me from anywhere to a few weeks to a few months, then I seem to build up a complete tolerance. If anyone want's to discuss it with me please reply and let me know.

I have heard that Adderral (ADD med) helps with the fibro fog and fatigue symptoms that we experience daily...thinking about asking my neuro for it...

Thanks for this thread.

I suffer from chronic neuropathic pain in the colon (left side), IBS/A-D and CFS. I've found too that anything dopaminergic seems to relieve the pain significantly, calm my nerves and improve all my usual symptoms.

Anyway I've never done any specific treatment with dopaminergic meds, I've done only some attempts on my own, so I can't tell if a long term treatment with a DRI or a dopamine agonist could be useful.
Moreover it would be important to consider tolerance issues and side effects.

I've done my own research and it seems that D2 receptors are seriously involved in the pain perception and analgesia.

Have you found anything else useful on this topic?

Dopamine/Psychostimulants
 

I take Paxil. I think that's in the same category with Zoloft? I know when I first started taking it I felt hyper and actually had to start with only 10mg and slowly work my way up. I now take 30mg a day. I was up to 60mg back in about 2005, but I started getting really bad migraines, the kind where you just want to die! I am also bi-polar and it is the only thing I can tolerate. I tried Zoloft and I wanted to jump out a window. I have an unusual sensitivity to most medicines, prescription and over the counter and vitamins. I also worry about taking a stimulant because sooner or later you end up needing more, like pain medicine.

I had been been on Provigil, 600 mg' since 2007, became tolerant and started ritalin LA in spring of this year, 20 mg' then 30mg'. Then I made the mistake of inviting a newby Shrink into my life who promptly stopped that. I fired that ******** and told him to go back to being a orderly.... that earned me a escort to the door. I'm now currently bringing my pain management team up to speed on some off the current treatments for ME/CFS/FM and Bi-polar. I too found that stimulant therapy was almost as effective as morphine. I'm starting to think that i'm dopamine deficient and have a list of symptoms, and medical history to back it up. I have found dopamine/adrenal precurser suppliments very helpful as well. I believe dopamine makes up only 5% of the neuro chemicals and is transported by serotonin, either dopamine is not being produced,transmitted or recieved. my belief in my case is that it is not being recieved. I feel that years of morphine, stress, and other toxic exposures (TCE,PCE, Benzene's) have effectively scrubbed that ability in my case as well as my ability to spell as one can see. Now explain that to a VA shrink and see if the door doesn't hit you in the ***.