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Question by Star: Does anyone with medical expertise know if “DOXEPIN”?
is used for Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors, such as skin picking? If not, does anyone know of a medication used to control skin picking?

Best answer:

Answer by Sir K
I have absolutely no expertise… or even knowledge of this… I’ve never even heard of it before until now… but… give me a moment and I’ll google it to death and see if I can find anything helpful! : ) I’ll be back!

—————————————————————
The following are most important quotes from the sites I will list below them and then in the source box.

“Doxepin is in a group of drugs called tricyclic antidepressants. Doxepin affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced.

Doxepin is used to treat symptoms of depression and/or anxiety associated with alcoholism, psychiatric conditions, or manic-depressive conditions.

Doxepin may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.”

“Do not use this medication if you are allergic to doxepin, or if you have glaucoma or problems with urination.”

“Serious, life-threatening side effects can occur if you take doxepin before the MAO inhibitor has cleared from your body.
You may have thoughts about suicide when you first start taking an antidepressant, especially if you are younger than 24 years old. Your doctor will need to check you at regular visits for at least the first 12 weeks of treatment.”

“Call your doctor at once if you have any new or worsening symptoms such as: mood or behavior changes, anxiety, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, or if you feel impulsive, irritable, agitated, hostile, aggressive, restless, hyperactive (mentally or physically), more depressed, or have thoughts about suicide or hurting yourself. ”

“Before taking doxepin, tell your doctor if you are allergic to any drugs, or if you have:

bipolar disorder (manic-depression); or

diabetes (doxepin may raise or lower blood sugar).

If you have any of these conditions, you may need a dose adjustment or special tests to safely take this medication”

“This medication may be harmful to an unborn baby. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant during treatment.”

http://www.drugs.com/mtm/doxepin.html

“PRESCRIBED FOR: Doxepin is used for treating depression and anxiety. It also is used for treating depression due to alcoholism or brain damage and depression associated with bipolar disorder. ”

“PREGNANCY: There are no adequate studies of doxepin use in pregnant women. ”

“SIDE EFFECTS: The most common side effect of doxepin is drowsiness. Drowsiness improves as therapy continues. Other side effects associated with doxepin include blurred vision, urinary retention (difficulty urinating), dry mouth, constipation, weight gain or loss, and low blood pressure when rising from a sitting position (orthostatic hypotension). Rash, hives, rapid heart rate, seizures, and hepatitis are rare side effects. Doxepin also can cause elevated pressure in the eyes of some patients with glaucoma. If antidepressants, including doxepin, are discontinued abruptly, symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, and changes in mood may occur. Such symptoms of withdrawal may occur even when a few doses of antidepressant are missed. Therefore, it is recommended that the dose of antidepressant be reduced gradually when therapy is discontinued.

Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in short-term studies in children and adolescents with depression and other psychiatric disorders.”

“BRAND NAME: Sinequan, Adapin ”

http://www.medicinenet.com/doxepin/article.htm

Doesn’t sound to me like it’s what you’re looking for… just to be sure though you may want to check out those sites. Sorry for all the copy and pasted quotes. : (

I’ll check out medications used for Obsessive Compolsive Behaviors “Skin picking”. I’ll post my findings below.

http://www.ocfoundation.org/compulsive-skin-picking.html (This just talks about skin picking… and if you don’t know much about it, it may be useful… but it says nothing about medication to help really.)

“Medication: The medications mainly used to treat picking are the same group as those used for OCD, including antidepressants (SSRIs). Drugs that help skin picking may take several weeks before they start working. They also may not work perfectly. Usually, 65 percent improvement from a medication is considered a good result. Medication should never be considered an end in itself, but a tool to help with therapy. ”

HUH! Well… then maybe Doxepin MAY help? But they say a 65% percent improvement from a medication is a good result. That’s not so good. After this quote on this site, there is mention of “Psychotherapy:”… but it’s too long to paste here… you may want to check it out on the site and see what it’s about. Here’s the link:

http://www.brainphysics.com/skin-picking.php

Sorry I can’t be of anymore help… I don’t know if Doxepin is what you’re looking for or not. I also don’t know how affective it will be. I hope this is at least slightly helpful to you. Sorry I can’t help more.

Best of luck!

Give your answer to this question below!

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Question by *TiGeR MoTh*: when someone is addicted to something does it have a chemical mechanism?
Like when some one is addicted to drugs, does it have a chemical mechanism, or is it because that person mind got use to that??

Best answer:

Answer by GattacaAmbition
The short answer is yes. Most literature on the subject now differentiates between physical and psychological addiction. Both in a way involve chemical signaling.

With a physical addiction, chronic use of the substance in question causes physical withdrawal signs in the absence of the drug. The body tries to keep certain parameters roughly stable (e.g. blood pressure, brain activity, hormone levels) and many drugs depress or elevate these processes. Thus if you suddenly stop, the body has already adjusted to having the drug. The severity of these effects varies with the drug used.

For example in a heavy drinker, alcohol chemically depresses the brain and body, the body adapts by producing more of some stimulatory chemicals, such as epinephrine/adrenaline & NMDA (increases brain activity), and less of some depressive chemicals, such as GABA (decreases brain and muscle activity). Thus if this person stops drinking suddenly the body has way too much stimulatory chemicals and way too few inhibitory ones. This explains why this person would become anxious, confused, and jumpy. This person could have a raised heart rate and blood pressure, difficulty sleeping, and develop a fever. These rebound effects could cause the person to experience hallucinations, seizures, or even die (from seizures or heart failure).

Besides alcohol, some drugs that cause physical dependence are: barbiturates, benzodiazepines (e.g. valium), nicotine, quaaludes, and steroids.

However, many drugs have a psychological addiction mechanism which is also chemically based. It’s important to realize that these may not cause measurable physical signs of withdrawal (i.e. a doctor wouldn’t be able to measure a difference in your vital signs) or cause death from quitting, but the effect on the individual is still profound. Many drugs act by hijacking the “reward center” of the brain. Normally the brain releases dopamine when you are doing something enjoyable or fun and to help cope with physical pain. Similar to physical addiction, the addicted brain will adjust to this and release less and less dopamine in response to normal “fun” stimuli and require more of the drug to release dopamine. Thus an addicted person would have to take more and more to achieve the same level of dopamine release. When withdrawing the person could experience varying (depending on drug and level of addiction) depression and body pain. Drugs that operate via this mechanism include cocaine & marijuana (to an extent).

Some drugs operate both ways like opioids (e.g. heroine and pain killers) & methamphetamine.

Some drugs don’t really have a clear cut addictive chemical mechanism (that we know of) and may simply be based on the user liking the way they feel on the drug. Many of these are hallucinogens like LSD. Marijuana also is proposed by many to be in this category as it’s effect on dopamine is mild.

So I guess this turned into a long answer, but essentially yes there is a direct chemical mechanism explaining addiction for most of the drugs we think of as addictive.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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Question by Liza Shevchuk: Natural Remedies For Brain Damage After Drug Abuse?
My older brother has done many drugs from about 16-21. Its been a year since his last use, and he’s been having some serious problems. He has high anxiety and he’s been having frequent episodes of “weird” (as he calls it) feelings. He doesn’t label it as feeling sick. During these episodes he feels jittery, emotional (even cry’s sometimes) out of control, his heart rate goes up. This also causes him to have insomnia. Maybe they’re panic attacks, but the thing is, what triggers it? This occurs randomly on a normal day. We believe its typical withdrawal symptoms, because he abused quite a few drugs. (Marijuana, cigarettes, ecstasy, crystal meth, shrooms, hookah, cocaine, inhalants, “uppers” (as he calls them))
He has gone to see his doctor several times to get treatment, and his doctor said he has migraines.
-____-
He prescribed him anti depressants and that didn’t help my brother AT ALL.
He does this herbal drop treatment (echinacea, other oils, etc) That help him sleep.
Now we’re trying to find him herbal remedies that would help repair his brain damage from all of the abuse he has done to it.
Thank you very much.

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
I’m not sure that there will be repairing of the brain damage (presuming that he has that as I’m not a medical doctor :), but researchers believe that the brain is very “plastic” and may form new nerve pathways to *help* compensate for the injured areas.

With regard to inhalant use, my friend actually has a severe Brain Injury from huffing at the age of 12, now in her 30s. The chemicals in products used for huffing are actual *poisons* that were never meant to go through the bloodstream.

Please be *very* careful with herbal supplements or “remedies” (e.g., echinacea, ginkgo biloba, chamomile) as they can result in side effects and/or drug (medication) interactions. It’s best to check with a licensed pharmacist before taking any of them. Not everything that is “natural” is safe 😉

Regarding the panic attacks, some people have generalized anxiety (to know specific event) or other types of anxiety. The antidepressants may help to lessen the intensity and/or frequency of the anxiety symptoms. Such medications tend to take about 6-8 weeks before possibly noticing results. A caveat (warning) is that some antidepressants may cause insomnia (trouble getting to and/or staying asleep). However, there are medications that one may take to help counteract the insomnia.

Even though benzo’s (e.g., ativan, valium, xanax, klonopin) may be prescribed to help with sleep, they’re not always recommended as a medication due to their physical addictiveness. (Some withdrawal symptoms from benzo’s may include seizures, psychosis/mental break from reality, or even death.) Some psychiatrists (it’s best to get medication for mental health issues from a board-certified psychiatrist as opposed to “just” a family doctor) prescribe seroquel (or other medications), which is classified as an antipsychotic but in smaller dosages may help with sleep.

You’d mentioned that he’s gone to the doctor several times, and I’m wondering if he’s gone to a neurologist which is medical dr who can help rule out disorders of the nervous system – brain, spinal cord, nerves. I’m just thinking that to help “cover all the bases” (not trying to give false hope though, know what I mean).

I’m not sure that he’d still be going through withdrawal symptoms a year after stopping the drugs, but it’s a good idea to ask a doctor about that as well.

Pertaining to the anxiety, please show him this government site which may have some local counseling agencies: http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/ and can click the second link. Then one can click “near you” on the left-hand side of the page under “find facilities” and can type one’s city and state of residence into search. Their toll-free 24/7 referral helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357). Just an fyi that the first link is for those looking for substance abuse counseling/treatment, and that may be an option if he’s still “using” or having cravings for substances.

A 12-step program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), may have some local support groups. The only requirement is having a desire to get sober. One may attend an “open” AA meeting if there is no drinking problem: http://www.aa.org

This site has some common mottos pertaining to those 12-step programs, including “One day at a time”, “First things first” and “People, places and things”: http://www.royy.com/toolsofrecovery.html

Al-Anon is a 12-step program for the *friends and family* of the problem drinker, but one may attend an “open” Al-Anon meeting if the loved one doesn’t have a drinking problem: http://www.al-anon.alateen.org

Give your answer to this question below!

Question by Crazy_person: Why does caffeine inhibit the normal negative feedback of the heart rate recovery after exercise?
I found that the heart rate didnt decrease a lot in recovery when a person had consumed caffeine. Normally the heart rate decreases to a certain point, then negative feedback kicks in and increases it slightly until the process eventually returns the heart rate to normal.
Is this right? And why does caffeine inhibit negative feedback?

Best answer:

Answer by kt
Both caffeine and exercise cause an increase in heart rate. In a normal, healthy young person, the effects of exercise are lost within about a minute of when exercise stops, because the sympathetic nervous system, and what Vander calls the “exercise center” in the brain are no longer stimulated. However, caffeine has a much longer residence time in the body, and since it is a central nervous system and metabolic stimulant, it would keep the heart rate elevated even after exercise stopped.

What do you think? Answer below!

Lunesta Withdrawal and Lunesta Detox

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