LONGECITY

I've been reading about Amantadine and it's modes of action. It inhibits dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake and also releases them, inhibits MAO-A, acts as a weak antagonist at the NMDA glutmate receptor and raises beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin levels. I also found some small studies that produced favorable results in patients suffering from depresison.

It looks good on paper, but there's a very serious side effect that's uncommon, but brings up lots of results when searched for in Google. Amantadine can cause Livedo reticularis. Most of the time it's temporary, but in some cases it can be permanent.

What do you guys think of this? Here's a study that documented Livedo reticularis during treatment with Amantadine.

ivedo reticularis is a common side effect of treatment with amantadine for Parkinson's disease. Investigation of 40 such patients suggests that the livedo is a physiological response provoked by depletion of catecholamine stores in peripheral nerve terminals.

Any way to counter this?

Amantadine is handed out like candy during flu season in China. (Which may be why most flu strains are resistant to it these days!) I've never heard of any reaction to short-term use -- either positive or negative. I've taken it myself, and there was no noticeable effect at any dose. Not even a 'threshold' effect.
...This study makes it look extremely weak, which would explain it: http://cat.inist.fr/...cpsidt=18167290 -- if the figures are correct, you'd have to flood your brain with the stuff to notice any effect.

The scientific paper you've cited may imply that livedo reticularis is an effect associated with fairly long-term use. With that said, I can't think of any reason for a healthy person to stay on amantadine for longer than a week or two. And, even then, only for flu-prevention purposes. As a nootropic or mood-enhancer, it's a very disappointing drug.

But several studies have shown it reduces prolactin levels so I'm pretty sure it can't be extremely weak.

I'm interested in it mainly for its antidepressant qualities. My main problem is with anhedonia, lack of motivation and fatigue. My psychiatrist agreed to let me try it. What do you think about it and are there any different drugs you would recommend?

Amantadine just looks exceedingly weak in most of the assays they put it to: http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22155208
...This recent study shows demonstrable, but very poor, activity at NET, DAT, and the NMDA receptor. It's interesting to note that the abstract begins with the admission that amantadine's mechanism/site of action is still unclear.


If you do experiment with it, please let me know how it goes.

Its used for akathisia, ms fatigue, parkinson and a few other things.

Have you ever tried it, medievil? I know you've experimented with a lot of drugs and I'm wondering if you found dopaminergic drugs to be useful. Have you ever used dopamine agonists, like mirapex or requip?

Pramipexole once togheter with tiagabine to make it work right away but asked it for akathisia so massive underdose.

Im gonna ask rotigotine for RLS here, i think piperine inhibits its metabolism, a low dose amisulpiride to block autoreceptor agonism and nausia/sedation and i would feel the effects of full D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5 agonism, if i raise ami then it would selectively agonzi the receptors that modulate the pfc.

Will be a interesting experiment.

never saw any need for amantadine, its like the house cleaner does alot but its no bodybuilder that selectively good at moving all furniture for a master clean if you know what i mean.

Im for polypharmacy not for do it all meds.

i'm gonna try it in a few weeks not for depression but for tinnitus
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/23426878

What are the main differences between Amantadine and Memantine?

What are the main differences between Amantadine and Memantine?

 

Amantadine seems to be much weaker NMDA-antagonist, but may boost dopamine through release and re-uptake inhibition. Amantadine also has anti-viral properties.