Neuropsychology Central

[Neuromind2005]

Hello, Just to familiarize myself , I Have a few indepth yet, for some, may be an "orinary" question, but I have 3 or 4 questions i cannot achieve a proper answer.

Im not a doctor, But a 6 year Science Teacher, I specialize in the Brain, teaching about such, etc, and plan to Further my education in a ph.d in NeuroScience or pschology.

I am pretty well rounded in the Neurotransmitter area. I just decided , Im not sure if this forum is "very professional" but it sure seem like it, and Im really tired of other forums due to the average joe or someone responding to a post of mine in a rude or obsurd manner, Or tell me to go see a doctor , that kind of stuff.

WEll, First of all, I myself Suffer from ADD. I beleive my Add in Either Type 2 or Type 5, going by amenclinics 6 types of ADD. Now, I also Have a very heavy interest in Studying ADD, actually beleiving there is alot MORE to it, for instance Drug Addiction is tied into such, Severe Add may often be misdiagnosed for Major Depression, Self medicating, Dysphoria, Social Anxiety and Panic attacks, lethargic depression, and 2 other topics, "reward Difficientcy syndrome" and Refractory Depression.

I have alot of questions thrown at me , and I try to answer them as knowledgeable as I can without just beating around the bush.

Do most farmland, If anyone on here is such, believe that ADD and Reward difficentcy syndrome, or altered dopamine in the limbic regions in the Nucleus accumens or Ventral Tegmental Area?

To my knowelge, or actually experience, I worked with numerious doctors (6) who all never mentioned ADD, or even the word dopamine after trying to speak to them about some issues of mine. Most Pdocs and regular doctors were fast to pull out the script pad, and write me SSRIs, either ZOloft or Lexapro, Once Welbutrin, Xanax or Klonopin, over and over, and sometimes ambien or remeron.

These medications were used over a long period at higher doses (SSRIS, benzos were usually taken for anxiety) and something was not right, maybe helped 10 -20 percent if that. Diagnoses was either Regular depression , Situational Depression, (ya one doctor told me this), Major depression, Anxiety disorder , etc. NOthing about ADD. Always seratonin or gaba meds were given. Even Desipramine was tried, to no avail. Remeron, serzone, Gabatropin, Straterra, and nothing.

So, approx 1 yr ago, I found a doctor through someone who directed me to this medical facility , advised me this doctor was not a p-doc, but a farmland in Psychopharmacology, Addiction and the Brain, and after My first visit, well knowlegeable in ADD ADHD.

I can call it luck, or alot of prayers, but About a 20 minute sit down, and actually running some issues by him, he asked me a few important questions. He asked me, Do I often try to alter my mood, with alcohol or drugs. I said Well to be honest, ALcohol is a factor and pain killer Vicodin, due to a slipped disk a while ago, but then he asked taken the vicodin as perscribed, and the answer was aaahh no. I often took them and told him 2 pill would enhance my mood like 10 fold. Alcohol numbed the anxiety and made me social. He asked any cocaine or speed addiction, Oxycontin, heroin, extacy, which I dont or never did.

He then gave me a 15 minute exam paper, an ADD test. Plus asking me about 20 minutes of questions. I told him what never worked and basically my medical history.

He told me, which I never ever expected to hear, that after he looked my ADD chart over, He said It looks like you have a pretty good case of Attention Deficit disorder, I said Well Im not hyper and stuff like that, he said there is innatentive and so forth. He said have you ever tried adderall , I said no, but Im familiar with it. Then He said he is actually going to perscribe me a low dose of a drug calles Buprenorphine, which is used for opiate addiciton, but the dose was 8mg then down, which is not that high because vicodin wasnt as harsh as the other opiates.
He then perscribed me adderall. So, I said, ok , now are these meds abuseable and risk for liver problems. He said If you truely have ADD, as you show, Adderall often never is abused, and you will find, If your trying to get high from speed, you will notice within a few week, and I would recommend you to call me. He said Buprenorphine , is a partial opiate and antagonist so there is no high but helps with opiate and now alcohol problems.

So I started this regiment. 20mg of adderall, and 8mg of suboxone, then my next visit , I said to him, boy all the money and presious time I wasted with other doctors, but this combonation of meds has helped me 100 percent!. Im a different person, I wake up with vitality, Dont abuse any of the medication, or even crave a drink or vicodin.
I told him the first 2 days, i did feel a bit buzzed but more speedy. He said correct, and the adderall, an amphetamine,will do that , then fall off, and you wont notice it, but you will. If you were to abuse it, you would be eating alot more , which i said I follow the doseing as perscribed.

OK, lets fast foreward. After about 1 yr of researching this specific topic , besided numerous yrs of mind research, I believe I had an alteration in the reward center of the brain. Also, My opiate receptors or endrophan system may have been also malfunctioning, but more so dopamine due to the fact most of these drugs affect the reward center

Well, to sum it up, The symptoms prior to my new medications, were (worse to best) Lethargic, Lack of vitality and zest for life, low mood, treatment resistant , more like Refractory type depression which buprenorphan is used.
ADD, and reward difficientcy syndrome, even though not really a listed mental disorder, but I read of such an issue, and I did try stratterra, and it did nothing, WHy? Norephinephrine basically is the N.T. which stratterra reuptakes. I dont have a difficentcy with such, nor seratonin.

well, I know this was long, and may be a bit odd of a topic but please respond, I would like to hear feed back.
gene