One other question for anyone who's still reading this: I know I'm probably being way too reductive here, and shouldn't be playing armchair psychiatrist, but is it possible there's some kind of dopamine dysfunction aggravating my situation? Before I began to settle into my current state of hopelessness, I could feel the pleasure slowly being drained out of my life; in the past, even at my most obsessive/anxious/neurotic, I could still count on certain things (social interaction, writing) to give me pleasure. I've still been writing lately, yet without the same satisfaction I used to find in using words; in social situations I was always witty and affable yet now struggle to complete sentences, and have lost much of my verbal fluency. That latter point kills me because I'm on the verge of starting a relationship and can barely bring myself to speak to the girl, even when I have a sincere desire to; it's like the spark that lubricates social interaction is missing. When I think of depression, I think of upheaval, inner unrest etc.; the way I feel is like I'm living in a void, like I'm not really here a lot of the time. Again, I understand that there might be a lot of overlap between what I'm describing and depression, but I don't even feel sad. I 've lost my emotional range; my mind is blank. I appreciate that I'll probably be called out on trying to diagnose myself, but would it be worth exploring the dopamine side of things over the next month before I began Nardil therapy? If so what's the safest (i.e. avoidance of subsequent downregulation) way of going about it? I have some Tyrosine on hand, which I've never tried. Also NADH which i tried while on Luvox as a way of countering the lethargy it induced; never noticed much, but maybe it'd work better off meds? Also thought a very low dose of deprenyl might help ...
NOTE: I am not an MD, so distrust everything I say. Read it but distrust it.
But I hope that you'll be better qualified in your dialogue with your MD, when that will happen.
As I read your paragraph above I was struck with the resemblance with the so called NEGATIVE symptoms of schizophrenia - I always keep an eye on updates on this disease because I have a schizo aunt (and that puts me at risk - there is a genetic component). A quick google search confirms the fact that OCD and schizo are often
comorbid conditions.
"Negative" symptoms of Schizophrenia , these symptoms are the lack of important abilities. Some of these include:
Alogia, or poverty of speech, is the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts, and often manifested as short, empty replies to questions.
Affective flattening is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact (person seems to stare, doesn't maintain eye contact in a normal process), and is not able to interpret body language nor use appropriate body language.
Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior; it is often mistaken for apparent disinterest. (examples of avolition include: no longer interested in going out and meeting with friends, no longer interested in activities that the person used to show enthusiasm for, no longer interested in much of anything, sitting in the house for many hours a day doing nothing.)
A short summary of a list of negative symptoms are:
- lack of emotion - the inability to enjoy regular activities (visiting with friends, etc.) as much as before
- Low energy - the person tends to sit around and sleep much more than normal
- lack of interest in life, low motivation
- Affective flattening - a blank, blunted facial expression or less lively facial movements, flat voice (lack of normal intonations and variance) or physical movements.
- Alogia (difficulty or inability to speak)
- Inappropriate social skills or lack of interest or ability to socialize with other people
- Inability to make friends or keep friends, or not caring to have friends
- Social isolation - person spends most of the day alone or only with close family
<A name=cog>
Cognitive Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Cognitive symptoms refer to the difficulties with concentration and memory. These can include:
- disorganized thinking
- slow thinking
- difficulty understanding
- poor concentration
- poor memory
- difficulty expressing thoughts
- difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior "
all the above lifted from
http://www.schizophr...diag.php#common
2004: Poyurovsky Michael; Weizman Abraham; Weizman Ronit
Obsessive-compulsive disorder in schizophrenia: clinical characteristics and treatment.CNS drugs 2004;18(14):989-1010.
There is a considerable overlap of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in the structural and functional brain abnormalities involved, role of the dopamine/serotonin neurotransmitter systems, and some demographic and clinical characteristics. Although OCD co-occurs in a substantial proportion of schizophrenia patients, a systematic evaluation of the clinical features and treatment of this population is lacking. This review critically evaluates findings of recent studies pertaining to the rate of occurrence of OCD or obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in schizophrenia and the clinical characterisation of the schizo-obsessive subtype. Specifically, interrelationships between obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic symptoms in terms of temporal relationships and their association with specific schizophrenia subtypes and the effect of OCS on the severity of schizophrenia symptoms are addressed. In the absence of evidence-based data, tentative therapeutic approaches in this difficult-to-treat patient subgroup are suggested. These include monotherapy with atypical antipsychotic agents or a combination of either typical or atypical antipsychotics with SSRIs or clomipramine. The clinical characteristics of antipsychotic-induced OCS/OCD are also presented to facilitate identification and management of this rare but clinically significant adverse effect. Finally, future directions of research in schizophrenia-OCD comorbidity relevant to clinical practice are discussed.
EDIT: the nasty thing is that the best supplement that fights negative symptoms in schizo - namely
NAC, the best glutathione booster available - is also the devil that causes pulmonary hypertension...
Matsuzawa D, Obata T, Shirayama Y, Nonaka H, Kanazawa Y, et al. 2008
Negative Correlation between Brain Glutathione Level and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A 3T 1H-MRS Study. PLoS ONE 3(4): e1944 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001944
Edited by NDM, 18 December 2008 - 01:10 AM.
