My Drug Cocktail: A recipe for disaster or positivism? :/

[Geaux Tigers!]

I've been doing some thinking about my medication regimen and wanted opinions on its effectiveness and stability.

I'm prescribed all in all:

Opiate Maintenance:
Buprenorphine (Subutex) 8mg. (30)

Stimulants:
Lisodextroamphetamine (Vyvanse) 70mg. (30)
Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine IR) 30mg. (30)

Anti-Depressants:
Bupropion (Wellbutrin XL) 300mg.
Duloxetine (Cymbalta) 30mg.

Benzodiazepines:
Alprazolam (Xanax XR) 3mg. (30)
Clonazepam (Klonopin) 0.5mg. (90)

Non-Benzodiazepines:
Zolpidem (Ambien CR) 12.5mg. (30)
Pregabalin (Lyrica) 150mg. (60)

A2 adrenergic agonist:
Clonidine (Catapres) 1mg. (30)

NMDA receptor antagonist:
Memantine (Namenda) 5mg. (30)

As a prior opiate addict, I recently have started taking Buprenorphine. I am satisfied and use it as intended.

I have ADHD and have been taking Vyvanse; however, I notice that it takes awhile to begin working in the morning and wears off too soon, so I break the IR into 15mg. halves that I eat in the morning and at around 3pm. in the afternoon. Also, I believe the L-dopa increase with the Bupropion augments
well with the stimulant medications.

Next, I have aniexty issues that are augmented by the inclusion of ADHD drugs so that's why I eat Clonazepam as needed. Alprazolam XR provides all dayrelief and I really like the time-release aspect. Lyrica is used off-label to augment the anxiety medications and is a mild mood stabilizer that assists with my Major Depression Disorder which is treated a SNRI, duloxetine.

Clonidine assists with the blood pressure spikes and helps manage ADHD symptoms; also, the NE inhibition is effective for depression.

Memantine prevents tolerance development.

Zolpidem CR keeps me asleep all night. I no longer have as many issues waking up in the middle of the night.

My dosing schedule is as follows:

Morning:

2mg. Buprenorphine
3mg. Alprazolam XR
0.5mg. Clonazepam
15mg. Dexamphetamine
70mg. Lisodexamphetamine
150mg. Pregabalin
1mg. Clonidine
5mg. Memantine

Mid-Day (not consistently timed):

1mg. Buprenorphine
0.5mg. Clonazepam
15mg. Dexampthetamine

Home from work or school:

2mg. Buprenorphine
0.5mg. Clonazepam

Night time:

12.5mg. Zolpidem CR
150mg. Pregabalin
1mg. Buprenorphine
30mg. Duloxetine
----------------

Do you believe that this regimen is suitable?

 

[sekio]

Christ, man, no.

If you're not addicted to opiates - you sure are to everything else. Jesus that's a lot of meds to be on...

The benzos, zolpidem. and dexamphetamine will probably lose efficacy in the coming months due to the development of tolerance.

 

[MatthewD]

Dude that's insane, and will probably lead to multiple chronic-addictions. I found that even with a few things that very much "balanced" each other, each one caused issues that the other ones masked. In your case, there's a lot of room for hidden problems... I'd be sticking to the absolute essentials. Probably simply Dexamphetamine and a Benzo if/when needed. Diet specifically for them and use sparingly, more for the Benzo's, the Dexamphetamine has less side-effects in my experience. At least you can substitute it with Coffee if you feel like a bit of a tolerance break, which I often do.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

That's a bunch of counter-acting drugs dude.

The Vyvanse and Dexedrine are going to lose their effectiveness rapidly. Same with the benzos, although they will probably take longer for this to happen. I don't think taking stimulants with Wellbutrin is a good idea to begin with.

I think you could cut a good portion of those meds out and still be fine. Did you get prescribed all these things from the same doctor?

 

[laCster]

definitely not a good idea to take wellbutrin with stimulants. both affect serotonin and norepinephrine and should never be combined due to risk of serotonin syndrome in addition to the other risks such as seizures, hypertension, tachycardia, ect..

why do you need more than one type of benzo, and do you really need those anti-depressants? are you really unhappy on all these drugs?

I think you could cut a good portion of those meds out and still be fine. Did you get prescribed all these things from the same doctor?

i agree, but i don't believe one human being would prescribe all these meds. i suspect some serious doctor shopping lol

 

[Biovail]

Ditto what everybody else has said so far.

From everything I've read, Memantine works much better in doses around 25mg if you really want to prevent tolerance to your stims. 5mg likely won't have much of an effect. And even on an NMDA antagonist, it's still recommended to take ~2 days off a week for quite a few reasons.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

you should not change how you take your medication without first talking to the prescribing doctor about it.

 

[verso]

Jesus that's a lot of meds to be on...

 

[Allein]

you should not change how you take your medication without first talking to the prescribing doctor about it.

I'm not so sure that shouldn't read read "you should change your doctor before you change how you take your medication" but fully agree with that cocktail going on you don't want to be messing with it without professional advice from those that have full access to your medical history.

Best Wishes

 

[pr0d1gy]

my liver hurts reading this.

 

[brighton]

jesus and i thought i was on a lot of prescription meds.

 

[Pegasus]

Recipe for disaster. That is a ridiculous amount of drugs to take. You're on 3mg alprazolam, 1.5mg clonazepam, and zolpidem and pregabalin on top of it? And bupe on top of that? Not to mention a bunch of stims and other assorted drugs? Start digging your way out now IMO.

 

[ColtDan]

what the fuck.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

Yep. You should speak to your prescribing doctor(s) about the sheer amount of drugs you're on. Whatever you do, don't stop taking all of them at once. That would be even worse at this point.

Talk to your doctor, I'm going to close this thread now. That's a lot of drugs to be taking every day, prescribed or not. Again, speak to your doctor before adjusting your medication in any way, shape or form.