I looked into the heart thing for you. It would appear that antagonism and inverse agonism can actually help treat your problem, and may even be a future direct target for aortic valve diseases:
Serotonin Receptors and Heart Valve Disease – it was meant 2B (I just had to put down the title. I bet the tried, and failed, to resist that pun).
http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC3472096/
I feel that Abilify is one of the most brilliantly designed medications in a long time. That says a lot, as more often then not, it's just the same shit repatented and remarketed to us for exorbitant fees (Lexapro, Pristiq, Concerta, etc...) Let's talk about buprenorphine(BP) first. BP is a (quite) weak partial mu receptor (opioid/endorphin receptor) agonist. If you are not in anyone way addicted to opiates, it acts as an agonist and makes you a bit high. However, if you have become tolerant to opiates, it acts like an antagonist and can actually cause withdrawal. It's replaced, to a great deal, the use of methadone as maintenance therapy for opiate addiction, as once the body reaches some level of homeostasis post-opiate use, it gives a small opiate feeling without making the person high, to help them stay clean. As a weak partial agonist, it becomes an antagonist relative to stronger opiates like heroin, thus blocking their effects.
Abilify does this same thing at the D2 receptor. It's a weak partial agonist, and whether it displays agonistic or antagonist activity is highly dependant on what's happening in specific parts of the brain, dopamine levels, and receptor density. Theoretically, if your D2 activity is too low, it raises it, and if it's too high, it lowers it. That last part we don't know for sure, but nonetheless it's an incredible mechanism.
I've been on a lot of antipsychotics due to previous horrible insomnia. Until I found better solutions, I took 10mg of Olanzapine and 100-300mg of Seroquel just to get to sleep, both every night, and it only worked 50% of the time. It helped with anxiety as well, but that was not the main purpose. Of what I've taken, Abilify seemed to be the least numbing and the most agreeable with my chemistry. I feel that in general,, Abilify doesn't have the numbing effects of other medications like it, probably due to its role with D2 receptors I just mentioned.
Abilify also seems to be a relatively potent partial agonist (at least relative to its weak action at D2) at the 5HT1a receptor, stronger than even Buspar. This can help with anxiety quite a bit, and it's even one of the central mechanisms of the new atypical SSRIs: Viibryd and Brintellix. It can also aid in the release of oxytocin (this is how MDMA becomes the 'love drug'. The high amounts of 5HT hyperactivate most of your 5HT receptors, including 5HT1a, thereby releasing a metric shitton of oxytocin. It's not the serotonin itself that causes the feelings of love and connectedness), which can help with social anxiety.
Unlike other anti-psychotics, it doesn't seem to really block the H1 receptor, so it won't make you groggy or knock you out, which means you can take it any time of day.
Remember, they make doses in a single pill up to 30mg, and some take even more (though that's rare). 2 and 5mg are very little, and 10mg is moderate, so don't worry if you feel the need to go up a bit.
I'll get back to you about some OTC things that can be synergistic with all this as well. But you may want to try the Abilify first, since it only takes 1-2 weeks to reach full effect, and then the memantine, and then see where you are at. Try to change only one variable at a time, otherwise you can never really know what is causing what.
I hope this helps!
Edited by OneScrewLoose, 13 May 2015 - 04:17 AM.