Recovery from augmentation-induced dopamine-system disruption?
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:28 pm
I've recently been considering this issue. A lot of us feel that we were permanently or semi-permanently damaged by augmentation on dopamine-type meds. At first the literature told us this was impossbile, but now medical researchers are starting to acknowledge that long-term damage might be caused by dopamine agonists.
It has always been an issue for me how to distinguish between permanent and long-term damage. I'm thinking about this now because of the slow but steady improvement in symptoms I've experienced since 2014. I've been sure - I still am sure - that the improvement was caused by the profound dietary changes I made in 2014. But maybe it was partly due to recovery of my dopamine system from whatever damage had been done to it. Perhaps, even, the diet gave my body the right nutrients to be able to recover.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Has anyone else experienced improvement of symptoms?
For background, I was diagnosed and given ropinirole in 2008, and augmented within a week. I took increasing amounts for 3 months while I educated my doctor on augmentation. Then he switched me to pramipexole and we repeated the same thing over about 6 weeks. So, I was on DAs for a total of less than 5 months, not counting isolated times since then. I also spent a few months supplementing my other meds with a low dose of long-acting levo-carbidopa in 2012; I believe I augmented then, too, but it was mild because I stopped as soon as I noticed. Up until 2013, my dose of hydromorph contin had been increased every 6 or 12 months until I was on 18-21 mg daily. In 2014, 3 months after changing my diet, I started to lower my dose, a bit at a time, and I'm now at 6-10 mg daily. How much of this is diet, how much is dopamine-system recovery, how much is random unknowable reasons? I wish I knew.
It has always been an issue for me how to distinguish between permanent and long-term damage. I'm thinking about this now because of the slow but steady improvement in symptoms I've experienced since 2014. I've been sure - I still am sure - that the improvement was caused by the profound dietary changes I made in 2014. But maybe it was partly due to recovery of my dopamine system from whatever damage had been done to it. Perhaps, even, the diet gave my body the right nutrients to be able to recover.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Has anyone else experienced improvement of symptoms?
For background, I was diagnosed and given ropinirole in 2008, and augmented within a week. I took increasing amounts for 3 months while I educated my doctor on augmentation. Then he switched me to pramipexole and we repeated the same thing over about 6 weeks. So, I was on DAs for a total of less than 5 months, not counting isolated times since then. I also spent a few months supplementing my other meds with a low dose of long-acting levo-carbidopa in 2012; I believe I augmented then, too, but it was mild because I stopped as soon as I noticed. Up until 2013, my dose of hydromorph contin had been increased every 6 or 12 months until I was on 18-21 mg daily. In 2014, 3 months after changing my diet, I started to lower my dose, a bit at a time, and I'm now at 6-10 mg daily. How much of this is diet, how much is dopamine-system recovery, how much is random unknowable reasons? I wish I knew.