20 replies to this topic

[Athenaze]

In your opinion, would methylene blue be a good treatment for major depression? Also, I am thinking of taking it with astaxanthin to reduce possible damage to the retina from sunlight - any thoughts?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

[nupi]

It might be (it can act as MAOI after all) and we definitely have some reports of mood uplifts but I would be wary of mixing it with conventional anti depressants, especially once you reach the dosage that it thought to have MAOI properties.

[amark]

There has been a study done linking the use of methylene blue to added relief from the symptoms of bi polar depression.

I feel it might be important to have a good diagnosis as to what your problem is. I am bi polar type 2 and have learned a bit about this area. Regularly prescribed anti depressants are not very good for those who suffer bipolar depression and vica versa. I have taken a lot of in effective drugs in the search for something that works. Although I am not a Dr I think it is fair to say that you have to know what your dealing with and be careful.

I have been considering getting some methylene blue for that reason. One thing you must remember is that your urine will be stained blue. (I could have told you that if you tried it but if it stained your pee blue you were dying! I also would have told you that the chances of that were one in a billion so it was considered safe. But despite it being a wonderful practical joke., It also is cruel and thus my confession!) A DR told me that it was a good thing for it showed it did not chemically combine much in the body. Interesting although it does not verify if their is partial digestion.

Good luck with it all.

[MrHappy]

Your urine will only stain blue at doses roughly exceeding 20mg. MAO inhibition becomes pronounced at 164nM, which is around 2mg. You can also prevent the blue colour by mixing MB with ascorbic acid for 3 hours before consuming.

Don't mix with SSRI's.

[rwac]

Your urine will only stain blue at doses roughly exceeding 20mg.

It actually starts staining urine at around 500mcg.

[maxwatt]

Your urine will only stain blue at doses roughly exceeding 20mg.

It actually starts staining urine at around 500mcg.

Such a lovely shade of blue.

[canz]

I would be willing to try this once they come up with an elixir or pill form at the effective dose.

[MrHappy]

I never saw urine staining, even at 2mg. Check out the MB threads - that just doesn't happen at that dosage.

[maxwatt]

At half that dose, there is a definite blue tinge. Sometimes even 'at lower doses.

[Krell]

I do not see any blue urine stain at 300ug MB 4x per day = 1.2mg/day total.

[rwac]

It actually starts staining urine at around 500mcg.

Such a lovely shade of blue.

Haha, yes. I should have elaborated as 500mcg x3.

[MrHappy]

I never saw staining at 3x2mg. No one else mentioned it either on that really long MB thread in nootropics at anything less than a megadose. Maybe it depends on how well you absorb it?

[OneScrewLoose]

I tried it and it made me feel miserable in the morning. Couldn't get out of bed. My pee was normal though. I forgot the dose I used, but I remember it being low. Also, be careful because if I remember correctly MB affects cortisol levels.

[tintinet]

From the Medscape article on the study of MB for bipolar disorder:

"Patients were randomized to 13 weeks of treatment or either low-dose methylene blue (15 mg daily), which was a surrogate for placebo, or high-dose methylene blue (195 mg daily), and then switched to the alternate treatment for the next 13 weeks. Because methylene blue stains urine, it was not possible to use a standard placebo."

[maxwatt]

Both doses likely to have effects, though different as to degree and perhaps modality.

[MrHappy]

NOS is completely inhibited at 60mg / 30mM.

[unregistered_user]

I was taking pretty high dose MB and didn't notice urine staining. I think you have to take quite a lot to get that effect.

[niner]

NOS is completely inhibited at 60mg / 30mM.

Nitric Oxide Synthase? How does that relate to depression? By 60mg, do you mean an oral dose of 60mg? That's not likely to produce a systemic concentration of 30 milliMolar. Did you mean microMolar? That may or may not happen either. There's a paper that looks at the pharmacokinetics of MB in oral and IV dosing. I don't have it handy, but with the oral dose, which was 100mg of crystalline MB in a gelcap, the blood level was 100nM! This level was stable for several hours. Apparently the pharmacokinetics is really different if you drink a solution of MB. MB has weird PK in general.

[rwac]

NOS is completely inhibited at 60mg / 30mM.

There's a paper that looks at the pharmacokinetics of MB in oral and IV dosing. [...] with the oral dose, which was 100mg of crystalline MB in a gelcap, the blood level was 100nM! This level was stable for several hours.

Liver concentration of MB in mice is 100x the blood concentration, and the intestinal wall may have 300x the blood concentration, it is perhaps similar in humans.

So 60mg may lead to a concentration of 6uM in say the liver.

Although MB has strange PK and we can't know if the serum concentration is actually 60nM @60mg dose.

Edited by rwac, 26 September 2011 - 01:56 AM.

[niner]

Although MB has strange PK and we can't know if the serum concentration is actually 60nM @60mg dose.

No, we really can't, short of someone doing a blood draw and analyzing for it. But even if we did, it wouldn't make much difference, since what matters to us is that we get the right concentration in the mitochondria. MB partitions into different body compartments to a surprising degree. We're probably doing about the best we can do by titrating the dose to the effects we're looking for, assuming we can feel them. I'm starting to do some more dose ranging experiments, now that I know what to look for. I need to have someone set up some blinded doses for me in opaque containers...

Here's the paper I was talking about; I'd been meaning to upload it.

Eur J Clin Pharmacol (2000) 56: 247-250.

Attached Files

•  MB PK and Organ Distribution.pdf   123.79KB   59 downloads

[snuffie]

From the Medscape article on the study of MB for bipolar disorder

thanks for sharing that article!