The Amen Clinic

Dear Uni Girl,
Well, then they medicate you based on experience. If you have an underactive prefrontal cortex, then you may need ADD meds. If you have an underactive prefrontal cortex, but a limbic system which is on fire, you may just be depressed. If you have an overactive cingulate gyrus, then you probably have OCD and need an SSRI. And if your temporal and parietal lobes are getting too much or too little blood....your DPed. Or you have huge anger problems. I went to the Amen Clinic, and those were the lobes where there were problems. They immediately got me started on an anticonvulsant, and its totally worth it. Go out there if you can. Its worth 3000 dollars to get a life again. There is another guy who runs a website called Crazy Meds who was also at the clinic. Just google his website. He has excellent information about meds as well.....the best on the net, I believe. Its second only to a PDR.

Peace
Homeskooled

Dear Uni,
All they can do with the SPECT is give you specific medicines which will bring the specific lobe's metabolism into the normal target range. Sure serotonin will be increased all over the brain. But that will DECREASE the metabolism of the cingulate gyrus. Why? Because your thought patterns as a whole dictate your brain's blood flow, metabolism, etc....and when you use an SSRI, obsessive thoughts decrease and so does your use of your cingulate gyrus, which moderates your attention span. Anticonvulsants will course through your veins to every cell in your body as well, but some work better for epilepsy in certain lobes than others. Even things which target specific bodily organs eventually reach your whole body. Its just important that you get it to affect the correct area as well. I was just reading tonight, and supposedly they are working on a Viagra-like pill to awaken sexual desire, which may be on the market next year. It supposedly works directly on the limbic system. Thats probably the most direct effect I've heard of beside the drug Ritalin, which directly affects the release of neurotransmitters from the basal ganglia. Dr. Amen's work is very specific. You should try buying one or several of his books. They explain his clinical experience and theories in great detail.

Peace
Homeskooled

Dear Rula,
Thats the point. Its the anticonvulsant properties that work for people with DP. Its not the fact that its a benzo, or just because its Klonopin. And I think alot of people just take it because its Klonopin, because it "works" for DP. But if it doesnt cure you, and it only partially alleviates your symptoms, as it seems to for most people with DP, where else do you turn for relief? If your thinking it helps because its a benzo, well, your headed down a rough path. But if you correctly guess that it helped because its an anticonvulsant, that opens up a new set of opportunities. I dont think its coincidence that DP mimics temporal lobe epilepsy to the point that the symptomology is almost interchangeable. I dont think its coincidence that the two most widely used anti-DP treatments are for epileptics. If you dont have percievable spikes on an EEG as a DPed person, I'll bet alot of money that you'll have subclinical kindling in the temporal area.

I was put on Trileptal after leaving the clinic. I was also told to exercise 4-5 days a week for a half-hour, eat equal parts protein and carbs in my meals, to take a b vitamins, vitamin c and e, and to take 2000 mg of omega three fatty acids a day. I was also told to start on Zoloft and a memory drug called Reminyl if the Trileptal affected my memory. I never had to start those two. In any event, my DP is gone now, and I dont take Trileptal. I think that I dont really need it because I'm hypothyoid right now. But if it ever comes back, I'll definitely start on a regimen again. Good luck

Peace
Homeskooled

Dear Jft,
Sorry, I dont think I got your PM! I think this happened to me once before on the new site. The stupid thing is that Daphne Simeon isnt pursuing this as an epileptic or kindling syndrome. She's pursuing this one neurotransmitter at a time. She chose to use Lamictal strictly because it limits glutamine activity in the brain, since patients exposed to Ketamine, a glutamine agonist, tend to complain of DP-like states. Since that didnt work well enough, she's moving on to limiting serotonin in the brain, with Periactin. It seems like a really helter skelter approach to me. As far as I can tell, there's never been any research done to compare DP states and TLE and most importantly, no clinical trials to document the effects of the range of anticonvulsants on it. As for Dr. Amen, I didnt even tell him I had depersonalization, so I dont think he'll publish about it any time soon. But thats the beauty of a scan - you dont have to have a name for your problem. You can see it and treat it as a physical problem, not a DSM-IV label. But he has published alot about temporal lobe problems. You can read some of his abstracts at brainplace.com, or get one of his books from your local library. Later!

Peace
Homeskooled