Hi all,
I was diagnosed schizophrenic (with insight) early last year, was put on antipsychotic medication for around a year which took away all of my positive symptoms, but unfortunately had some (tolerable) side effects. I came off my antipsychotic early this year, have been off it for a good 3+ months and so far everything is ok.
While my negative/cognitive symptoms are mild, I have tried a number of things to improve this area (amphetamine, sarcosine) with limited results. Since nothing worked I just accepted my state of mind and eventually stopped focusing on my defects and forgot about it.
Well I have been studying pretty hard for my upcoming exams and decided I venture back into the world of supplementation. I thought I'd go with some fairly 'mild' nootropics to assist in my efforts. I have had some pretty bad reactions to drugs/meds/supplements, my neurochemistry is pretty fragile.
With the added stress of studying/exams, I have been getting some symptoms coming to the surface, in particular anxiety and panic attacks, with some mild bodily sensations (hallucinations), and some paranoia.
So anyway i'll cut to the chase. I decided to try out the piracetam I received recently. After hearing some horror stories, I decided to start of dosing with around 200 micrograms. Basically I dissolved 40mg into a litre of water and measured out 5mL. I gradually increased the dosage (500ug, 1mg etc) until I reached around 300mg which is where I started to feel effects. I redosed a few times until I reached a level which felt efficient, my accumulated dose being 600mg.
All I can say is wow! The first thing I noticed was that my mind clearly was working more efficiently, I assumed it had extra energy available and everything was functioning at a higher level. The next thing I noticed was that the borderline psychotic symptoms I had been experiencing all day lessened quite dramatically. This was quite an amazing thing to witness, it was like an instantaneous antipsychotic effect. I took the dog for a walk and while I was walking around noticed some other improvements.
My thinking had become more creative, I was coming up with all sorts of ideas and insights. I could actually feel my emotions, which was incredible, which reminded me that I do have a mild anhedonia. Critical thinking increased significantly, which although I haven't read anything definitive, I do believe schizophrenics have a lack of analytical/critical thinking (psychosis involves a large lack of judgement). My thoughts and emotions and whole psychology just became clearer, where as normally it's a subconscious thing I ignore, instead I was aware of it. I had more motivation, which was inter-related to the enhancement of critical and psychological thinking - I understood why I needed to do something and the logical action I needed to take.
When I got home I meditated and attained what Buddhism would call "access concentration", or the beginning stages of samadhi. I mantained it for around 5 minutes. Normally my meditation is coloured by what is known as "sloth and torpor", essentially a lack of mindfulness pulls the meditation into a dull state rather than awareness.
The best way I can describe it, is that piracetam (metaphorically) scratched an itch in my brain. It significantly ameliorated the negative/cognitive and positive symptoms I experience as a result of schizophrenia. Alot of the supplements I've tried, whilst they do have benefits, haven't really slotted well with my chemistry. This time is was like a tailored suit, I could feel it was really activating a part of my brain that has a dysfunction.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/10583700
I believe the glutamate hypothesis is one of the most promising avenue's of research into schizophrenia treatment, next to the dopamine hypothesis. Piracetam is [sic] "a positive modulator of glutamate receptor", and I believe this is why piracetam had such a therapeutic effect on me. Quite amazing, and it gives me quite a bit of insight/direction into my neurochemistry.
Edited by mono, 24 June 2014 - 09:58 AM.
