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Drugs known to be neuroprotective/reverse atrophy?

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Recently I got a brain MRI and the neurologist scared me by saying that there's a region (parietal cortex) which seems a bit small for my age (33).
He said he doesn't know if this has been this way since birth or if it's something progress.

I have ADD and most of my symptoms are with executive functions which are all linked to the PFC.

This stuff is worrying me. I have also been suffering from pretty severe stress,depression,anxiety,ocd for many years.

I worry that my psychiatric struggles cause brain atrophy.

I also worry about dumbing down. 3 years ago when I was tested for ADD I had to do concentration exercises in which my performance was not "according to my age".

I also had to do one of these IQ tests where there are 3 field with different patterns/shapes. The 4th field is blank and you have to decide which pattern belongs into this field.
I totally sucked at this test and this also dragged me down.

What I also notice is that I hardly ever understand anything instantly cause there are always things which are unclear to me and all kinds of questions come to my mind.
Even the IQ test with the patterns seemed debatable to me. I felt as if there really isn't 1 clear answer. But the psychologist who had me do the test said that there's always only
1 correct answer. But I felt as if it wasn't really that clear.

Anyway,
I wonder if there are any antidepressants or other psychopharmaceuticals which are especially known for neuroprotection and neurogenesis?

If I knew that some antidepressants are better for this than others then I'd try switching to these antidepressants.

I'm taking Lexapro, Lamotrigine, Vyvanse.


Supplements which I take are:

Daily:
Vitamin C (1-2gr/day)
Vitamin E 400-800mg/day
B vitamin complex
Zinc 10mg
Wheat Grass powder (~10-15gr)
Spirulina
Fish Oil (2gr)
Vitamin A 5000iu

Often but not daily:
Trimethyl-Glycine (supposepdly helps with depression)
Glycine (supposedly helps with inflammation)
Acetyl-L-Carnitine (I heard it boosts cognition)
Choline (I heard it boosts cognition)
Taurine (I heard it's protective against stress and also antioxidative)

I'm not sure if taking these "cognitive boosting" drugs is ok or if this could cause interactions with the prescription drugs I'm taking.
I doubt that there are any studies where they test wether Acetyl-L-Carnitine for example is safe with a SSRI or Lamotrigine.
This worries me a bit.
 
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Has anyone in your family had Alzheimer's? Because smaller than normal parietal lobes are correlated to that later in life. If your other family members have this trait then it may be genetic.

I doubt psychiatric issues have caused atrophy. Usually psychiatric problems (like severe psychological trauma) cause receptor down-regulation, they don't cause grey or white matter to shrink, unless you have had physical head trauma. A lobe being physiologically smaller is more than likely a trait you're born with, or the lobe simply didn't develop as you matured.

You can't really stimulate a lobe to get larger or regrow. The brain is incredibly resilient and can bypass damage from trauma or abuse in some cases. But if it's a genetic trait then that's a tough one to modify. So many drugs don't pass the blood brain barrier. It's also hard to say that just because your parietal lobe is smaller, that it's working "less well". Bigger brains don't mean smarter people. It's the complexity of neutral connections that determines that. If you've had a smaller parietal lobe your whole life then your brain has already adapted to living that way.

You can try nootropics... like the -racetams. Vinpocetine is another that's specifically indicated for CNS degeneration related stuff, as well as hydergine. If there is somehow amyloid black involvement causing atrophy, you can use turmeric to slow that progression. Though 33 would be extremely young to be developing Alzheimer's? I also don't know which nootropics target which lobes of the brain, or if it's always just a global effect.

I wouldn't get too hung up on IQ tests. They mainly test aptitude, not intelligence. Even if you have a sensory impairment that prevents you from processing information as quickly as others, it doesn't mean you are disabled or can't live a functional life. We all have different strengths and deficits. When I was in uni I took an IQ test and got a high score. Five years later, being out of school and having a more or less monotonous routine, I took another test and scored in the average range. The values fluctuate over time.

I just gave you the above info to be helpful and informative, but something tells me that the MRI has given you a touch of hypochondria. Maybe you shouldn't worry too much about it. One problem with modern medicine is they tend to over-diagnose. For instance, most of us have cancer cells at some point or another - some people even have small tumors - but the body rectifies it or the cancer doesn't impact them. But when everyone gets a yearly scan then it makes people paranoid, more people get chemo, etc.

Just live your life and try not to stress.
 
Curcumin hasa TERRIBLE bioavailability and it more or less must be taken with piperine (not to bee confused with piperidine or piperazine) to allow for some absorption.
 
Lamotrigine and other anti-epileptics can really impact cognition. Also I would very much advise against piperine while on such drugs.

I think what's more talked about with brain growth is reversal of depression related hippocampal atrophy with antidepressants, and a lot of the time that relates to BDNF signaling (induced by SSRIs for example), but you might be interested in Noopept.

But for the most part I would first examine the lamotrigine.
 
I think it's also worth mentioning, based upon the title of OP's thread, that drugs acting as neuroprotective agents need not necessarily promote growth/regeneration of new tissue, but rather preserve the function of existing neurons. In addition, drugs that promote the growth of nervous system tissue do not necessarily impact intelligence in the way you may expect, in some cases they may have no effect at all.

It's always been my view that a balanced diet, enough sleep, and daily aerobic exercise is all most people need to encourage mental health. Aerobic exercise in particular can be a powerful factor that most people neglect.
 
Hello!

I don't use piperine, but I frequently use ground black pepper, especially when I use curcuma as spice in meals.
I know that piperine can affect liver enzymes but I don't know if black pepper contains enough of this to cause issues.

I am pretty worried about the MRI and the parietal cortex issue by now.
I told my psychiatrist about this. He wanted to see the MRI scans and he showed them to me. Even I could clearly see that the parietal lobe
is less dense and smaller than the grey matter at the front of the skull!

It looked really scary. In the front it's dense and you do not see any clefts but in the back you see clefts!
I even think that in the back of the head the skull wasn't even totally filled with grey matter.
I think at the top of the skull there was even some space left which showed up as black area on the scan!

What I do not understand at all is why the radiologist who also examined the MRI scans did NOT mention this at all!
I am going to talk to him and ask him about this. I also have older scans going back to 2001. I really hope that it has always been this
way. If it has not always been this way and if there are changes then it would be highly concerning.
My psychiatrist said this cannot be caused by depression he said that this would rather be a brain disease!

I do not know if the parietal lobe is small only on 1 side of the brain or on both sides. The radiologist will be able to tell me.

What would really piss me off is if the radiologist never paid attention to this! I have done 4-5 brain MRIs since 2001.
Usually you would expect a radiologist to look at such things and not only look out for a tumor, right?

But it's a fact that the parietal lobe is smaller. I have seen it and the psychiatrist also saw it.

Nobody in my family has Alzheimer.
I also worry what if antidepressants or stimulants can have anything to do? I started trying out antidepressants in 2012. Stimulants in 2013. First Ritalin and since
the beginning of 2015 amphetamines.

I also have always felt like I am not normal. I forget basically everthing I ever learned! I remember nothing from school. I virtually know nothing about physics,math,chemistry,biology.
Everything I learned is gone. I don't think this is normal. Other people remember stuff they learned in school. It's basically like I've never taken any class
in natural sciences. I remember none of that! If I had a child I could not help it with anything. Maybe simple math exercises but that's it.

But my memory isn't bad per se. I remember events from the past and when I think about different years in my life then I can pretty much tell what kind of things were going on in these years.

I imagine what if I was a doctor and didn't remember basic stuff from med school? This would be unthinkable.
No doctor could afford this.

I really think that for whatever reason my brain is abnormal. But if I mention such things to other people then they think I'm a hypochondriac or that I am simply
making up excuses for failing.


I have been on Lamo only since last year. I don't feel like it negatively affected my cognition.
The fear of dumbing down also already existed before.

What also worries me is that my father once saw a neuro-psychiatrist many years ago.
He had him do all kinds of exercises like for example like counting backwards in different steps or memorizing
items from different lists and then repeating them.
Or spelling words backwards.

I know that I am not good at such stuff at all. I'd be really scared of going to a neuro-psychiatrist and then being told that
my performance at those exercises is really poor. What would the consequences of that be?!

I don't even really dare to "challenge" my brain and calculate stuff in my head cause in these moments I'm also scared cause if
I need a long time to come up with the right answer then I feel even more that I'm dumbing down.

Or what has also happened to me is that when trying to calculate stuff in my head that I forget numbers which I already calculated.
For example if I multiply a 3 digit number and then split it up, like for example 127 X 4 and then I first calculate 120 x 4 and then
add it to the result of 7 x 4. Then sometimes I forget what the first result was.

What I am also bad at is calculating how old somebody is. For example when I read that an actor was born in 1954 then I feel like I need
too long to finally come up with the answer.

I simply sense somehow that when doing such stuff my thinking is slow and not sharp at all.

I also forget everything I learned in the past, like back from school. Or even stuff I had to learn for tests which I wrote a few semesters ago.
It's all gone. I don't think this is normal. Other people remember all kinds of things but I simply forget it.
I can't simply read something in a book, understand it and then it's saved in my brain.
I may understand something but if I think about the same thing in the future then I basically have to understand it afresh and have to do all
the thinking again!

For example I thought about what happens when you set the clock 1 hour forward and 1 hour backward.
It took me an awful long time to really wrap my mind around this and to figure out wether it gets darker in the evening earlier or later depending
on wether you set it forward or backward.
And I know if I think about the very same question some time in the future then I have to do all the thinking again cause the "understanding" I gained
in the past is gone!

Things which I figured out are forgotten unless I think about them regularly and refresh it.

But my memory isn't generally bad. I remember events and stuff which was going on in different times of my life.
I can go back the last 15 years and tell what kind of things were going on in my life in this particular year.

What I also know is that I am not good at stuff like chess or games like mill, where you have to think many steps in advance.
This also concerns me. Of course one could simply say this is ADD but this would be too easy in my opinion.
 
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If you basically have nearly always had those issues with numbers, isn't that sort of a reassuring sign that it would be more likely to be a congenital deformity rather than some disease? I guess some of those symptoms are associated with parietal lobe function yes, but it seems like less of an acute worry if there aren't huge reasons to believe it is something progressive - though it's good that it gets checked out to be sure...

I don't see the link with psychiatric symptoms like depression, the only thing is that depression can very well make your thinking slow, so it may all seem worse than it is.

It sucks having to live with something like a 'handicap' if you will call it that, but you have been doing it for quite a long time is clear from what you're saying. So I would try not to worry about things like the consequences of performing poorly on some test. It says very little if you cannot compare it to your performance of say 1, 3 or 10 years ago. Again: if you have had such issues for many years, there would not be special consequences.
I'd say mainly you might get 'diagnosed' with something like an explanation for the issues you've always had, and I know from experience that can make people feel both relieved from having an explanation and things falling into place, but also a sense of grief is possible from the realization when matters get concrete like that all of a sudden.

Atrophy doesn't seem like a logical result of your struggles anyway - if you have issues with certain kinds of functioning usually you expect the brain to attempt to manage the best it can by various forms of compensation. So if anything it might need to work a little harder. Atrophy comes from real inactivity I think.

If there is malformation, somehow I doubt that upping NGF or BDNF like some nootropic drugs can do will be able to build nerve tissue that wasn't there in the first place and it would still require learning better top manipulate objects or symbols. Particularly in healthy people I am generally skeptical about why neurogenesis would be a 'the more the better' type thing. I guess it could increase the potential for plasticity, but the real question is what is being done to effect positive changes rather than neutral or negative ones.

Nevertheless you do sound like a fine candidate for nootropics. But I don't know if it's alright with regard to medication interaction.
I personally had positive results with aniracetam, but keep in mind that while aniracetam can have a curious calming effect... in general drugs like racetams can cause irritability and mild anxiety so be prepared.

Noopept is indeed more a drug linked to increasing NGF and BDNF for neurogenesis... personally I did not feel it did much for me but while I do have ADD and ASS, I don't have brain injury or limited intelligence.

Finally: there are multiple types of intelligence and multiple types of memory - so if you turn out to have a handicap that impairs some specific types of intelligence or memory, that doesn't necessarily say something about them in general. Focus on the less or un-affected functions and cheer up. :)
 
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Hi!

I can't really tell if I've always had these issues. I know that my thinking has always been slow and non-fluent in certain areas. Even back in school I was aware of this.
For example when I had finally figured out how to solve a math exercise then it didn't really stick. It always felt like a struggle to me cause I notice that it doesn't feel "natural"
it's like my brain isn't suited for stuff like that.
But I have these issues with things not sticking in many other areas. It's not just math.

I don't think that other people also have to think things through again and again even if they had actually understood them in the past.

I'd we willing to try nootropics but the problem is finding out if there are any drug interactions. I wouldn't want to risk anything.
Telling if there could be interactions also seems difficult to me. I mean interactions could be on all kinds of levels. Even if 2 different substances do not
cause any problems in the brain then they could still have metabolic interactions.
That's the huge disadvantage of supplements. They're not tested the way drugs are and you don't know what happens if you take them while being on drugs.
 
On the topic of nootropics: You can try racetams like piracetam or aniracetam, they are very safe in terms of interactions; the worst side effect I have heard of them causing is temporary headache!

I don't think that other people also have to think things through again and again even if they had actually understood them in the past.
Click to expand...

Sure they do. It's called rumination, people do that all the time. Memories are tricky. Sometimes grown adults forget which direction is left and which is right. And likewise, not being able to do abstract math problems like adjusting clocks or doing subtraction of 4-digit numbers instantly is not a sign of disability nor is it a problem. We live in an age of $0.99 pocket calculators (and you probably carry one around on your phone if it's from post-1999), so if you aren't very good at math just carry and use a calculator when you have to!

But my memory isn't generally bad. I remember events and stuff which was going on in different times of my life.
I can go back the last 15 years and tell what kind of things were going on in my life in this particular year.
Click to expand...

So you obviously have a better memory than many people! :)

What I also know is that I am not good at stuff like chess or games like mill, where you have to think many steps in advance.
This also concerns me.
Click to expand...
You must realize, skills like looking several moves ahead in chess, doing mental arithmetic, and the like - are not innate to every human. Sure, there are incredibly rare cases of the total savant, bu those are rounding errors. The way you develop these skills, like any other ones in life, comes from continual immersion and practice. It really does come down to that, there's no magic involved.

I know that I am not good at such stuff at all. I'd be really scared of going to a neuro-psychiatrist and then being told that
my performance at those exercises is really poor. What would the consequences of that be?!

I don't even really dare to "challenge" my brain and calculate stuff in my head cause in these moments I'm also scared cause if
I need a long time to come up with the right answer then I feel even more that I'm dumbing down.
Click to expand...

This is awfully simple for me to say, but you should just embrace being a novice in the topics you are weak in. "I'm new at this / I'm still practicing to get better" is an excellent explanation for failure, if anyone asks. You can never get worse by putting in work practicing skills, though! If you have the right supportive environment, failures stop being seen as insults and are seen instead as paths to improvement. I'm a good chemist, but I wasn't always that way - I've had my fair share of math errors, equipment failures, slips, spills, broken glassware, solvent geysers, reagents going to tar - but for every one of those I calmed down, cleaned up, analyzed what happened, and learned how NOT to do it next time!

It sounds to me that you just expect more of yourself than you are currently capable of. My advice is to take up a mentally stimulating hobby - programming, orienteering, model-building, electronics design, music, etc - and keep at it. Keep a journal of your progress over time and you'll be surprised. Show it to your psychiatrist and explain what you're doing - that'll get you a gold star and/or a cookie.
 
Yeah I haven't heard of any interactions from racetams either beyond some potentiation and indeed the headaches that are typically prevented with choline sources.

Definitely seems like a better idea to me than antidepressants you were talking about - which on average are on the contrary not as forgiving to combine with other drugs.

Your episodic memory indeed sounds very good. Problems with maths could be standard dyscalculia or perhaps related to your suspicions involving being able to process mathematical operations to begin with - so rather involving working memory rather than any form of long-term memory at all. If you can't process something cognitively to begin with, remembering it is obviously out of the question.
Not everyone is cut out for science, I agree with that - can be disappointing but it is not something to really concern you. I have yet to hear something that really threatens your health in this regard. And yes developing an interest is a great idea ^ it should never be about performance, but about liking something and devoting time and attention. Over time, usually you get better or find out that it's not to your liking or something like that... but don't worry about the progress you haven't yet made and find some Zen just in the doing itself.
 
^^I think learning an instrument is an excellent idea, learning an instrument has been shown to increase the volume of the corpus callosum, an area that facilitates the communication between brain hemispheres and regions.

Try not to worry too much. The brain is very good at adapting. Take for example children that have to have a whole hemisphere of their brain removed due to intractable epilepsy - they often go on to develop fairly normally.

But between cardio, mindfulness, good sleep and diet, as well as challenging intellectual activity, there are many ways to improve your brain function.
 
Hi guys!

I have seen the radiologist who has several brain MRIs from me dating back to 2000. I was expecting him to take a really close look at the scans but he more or less quickly scrolled through them.
He didn't even look at all angles of the brain. I told him that my psychiatrist showed me some scans which show the head from the side and that at the back of the skull the tissue was less dense
than at the front. I mean I could clearly see this and the psych also saw it.

I was expecting the radiologist to at least look at those side scans but he did not. He only looked at a few pics which show the brain from the top. He said that if there was any loss of brain tissue
then you'd see it in the center of the brain cause there would be loss, too.

Basically he said that you can't just do it the way the psychiatrist and the other neurologist did it and just look at some scans and then say that they look abnormal.
He said that he has patients with normal looking brains which have signs of dementia and vice versa.
He also said that in his opinion selling brain MRIs as early diagnostic tool for dementia is dishonest cause it's not reliable.

Now I don't know who to believe. I mean if my psychiatrist has no clue about interpreting brain MRIs then why didn't he tell me? He claimed that he has worked in the field
of dementia before.

The radiologist also said (and this really scared me again) that what matters is function. He says if you want to find out if there's something going on you do tests like calculating forwards and backwards
and memorizing lists of items!

But I already know from a ADHD test which I did in 2013 that I am not good at remembering lists of items and the results of the test also said that my performance not as good as it should be for
my age! Back then the doc blamed this on ADHD but what if it's not?
I don't even know 100% if I really have ADHD. I only know that I have a lot of typical symptoms of ADHD.

Basically I don't feel relieved at all. I still worry. I mean what if I go to a neuropsychiatrist or neuropsychologist and then he does these calculation tests with me and I totally suck at them?
Then what? Does this mean that I am sick?

I don't think it would even make sense to go there cause when I feel like I have to do well in these tests otherwise it means I'm sick then the pressure would be even higher and then I'd totally
freeze up. :(

I really can't tell how much of my symptoms are caused by depression or being insecure. I mean my self-esteem is really low for various reasons. I feel like most of the people out there except
those which are really uneducated are smarter than me or at least more knowledgeable than me.

My general knowledge is really small. I am scared that somebody could find out about this and that I'd look like a fool.
The stuff which I learned in school is all forgotten.
Most people acquire knowledge on their own, outside of school. But I never did that.
I think it's because most things really do not interest me at all. Politics, geography, history for example do not interest me.
And because of this I also know very little about it.
If I was told to point where a certain country is on a world map I'd also have difficulties. I have a atlas at home and I could probably
try to memorize locations but then again I don't really have the motivation to. And even if I took the time and memorized it then it would
not take long and I'd have forgotten it again!
This is most discouraging cause it simply makes no sense to try to gain knowledge when you know that you cannot keep it.

There really aren't many things I could talk about with other people during a conversation. I mean the things which I know a bit about, like antidepressants, testosterone replacement,
stimulants for adhd, which actually interest me are not really things you talk about in a conversation. It makes you look like a freak.
And even there I'm no expert. Talking about things which you're not really an expert in is also depressing for me cause then I always think that I may as well be saying something which
is actually incorrect.

Even if I tried to read up on stuff and try to gain a broader knowledge then it would be useless cause I'd forget it right away. For example a few weeks ago when I was watching
Vikings I searched a bit on the internet about the vikings, when they lived and which regions they lived in and so on. But I did not maintain any
of this. If I really wanted to keep it I'd have to take notes and then memorize them and keep refreshing this knowledge regularly. Which normal person
does that?

I really don't think this is normal.
My brother for example knows all kind of things about history. It seems to interest him.
But I am sure he never sat down and took notes and then memorized them with brute force. He probably read things and then he was able to simply save this knowledge.
I wish I could just read something and then it stays in my head.

What also worries me is that when I talk I often feel like I sound stupid,clumsy and insecure. My active vocabulary is also pretty small imo which also makes me feel stupid.
For example instead of saying something like "this person is mean" I'd rather say something like "he's an asshole". I feel like my way of expressing myself verbally has
degenerated or maybe it has always been on such a rather low level.
Sometimes I think about a word and then try to find synonyms for the same word and then I realize that I know none or only very few.

I don't know what to make of this. Since I have anxiety and ocd I obsess with these things which creates a vicious circle. Now I pay even more attention to these issues and when
I feel like I notice signs of mental weakness I become afraid.

My problem is that I never really had many interests, especially when I was 18 and had to decide what to do after school. So I made a lot of bad choices and ended up studying social sciences
which I absolutely hate and which I'm also not good at! But it's too late for me now to start with anything new and besides this I also wouldn't even have the strength for this anymore due
to depression.
People define themselves over what they do or what they have learned or how much they know. I can't define myself this way cause I haven't learned anything useful. A butcher or a
welder is more useful in a society than somebody like me who learned worthless theoretical stuff and even at this he's not really good.
This is absolutely depressing and it has been nagging on me for years. All the time I get these thoughts about how useless I basically am. It's hard to deal with this.
I wish I was a chemist and understood chemistry. A chemist can't just sit down with somebody and then tell him everything he learned in 60 minutes.
I could sit down with somebody and then tell him everything I learned over the semesters and which I still remember within 60 minutes.

When I go to the doctor then I always think about how much knowledge he has about all kinds of things which makes me feel bad about myself. I really feel like
people who function on a high level and who have a huge knowledge are different than me. Most likely their brains are able to store information easier than me
and because of this they can learn things, keep them and then move on. I on the other hand take one step forwards and one step backwards.

I really can't even imagine how other people can know so much and not forget it.
 
There is a guy who used to have giant stacks and stacks of papers around his office and desk, and as a prank his coworkers boxed all his stuff up and made it look like he was getting canned. Well it turned out that even though his office looked like a complete mess, he knew exactly where everything was - what paper was in what stack and how far down it was exactly. You can guess he was pissed about everything being thrown randomly into boxes lol.

Anyways, the point is that there are some brilliant people out there, and they have various skill sets. Typically when people are brilliant in one area, they have deficits in another. Some people are great with technical things but can make a lousy emotional companion/family member. It's always important to remember that when you see someone who is great at something, there are things that they are horrible at that you're not seeing. And it is the "vocal minority" (smart minority?) that sticks out in your mind, if you will.

The other thing to remember is that there are plenty of people below 100 IQ points (50% of the population really), but no matter what our IQ is, we can always be grateful that we're not 80 and below for example. Just reading what you've written, you are certainly intelligent even if you've never applied your intellect to science in particular every day for years and years. It doesn't mean that you were incapable of developing your doctors knowledge etc, just that it didn't happen. There's a difference between the brain not being able to learn and simply not having learned. ADHD for example, many people with ADHD are intelligent in my personal experience but just because they have a hard time focusing and are usually battling demons they don't branch out into a mega technical scientific field. A person with ADHD isn't gonna crunch numbers all day, they'd probably be better off twisting a wrench or something to that effect. Sorry if you've already mentioned what you do, but are you working nowadays?

How long have you been on the lamotrigine again? Is that for OCD?

I hope you feel better soon and can try not to worry too much. You seem very intelligent but it's just that your brain wasn't applied in a super scientific manner in terms of biology/chemistry, although that doesn't mean it's too late to learn, if only to learn neuroscience/biology and pharmacology as a hobbyist (challenging intellectual activity is a great way to try to stay sharp). You seem like you would be perfectly capable of learning with time if you were interested. 33 is still young! The brain is never finished changing and developing, you're constantly growing new brain cells and making new connections all the time.

But everyone will have their niche. I am personally horrible with math and really don't know much chemistry at all, but I like biology/neuroscience. And because I like it, I'm able to focus on it and therefore my brain has managed to retain more info than memorizing lists sort of crap. I just thought I'd throw that out there because I'm ADHD myself and the attention deficit type people can have a hard time learning stuff they're not captivated by.

They used to wonder with ADHD/ADD, whether it's a learning deficit that leads to an attention deficit, or whether it's an attention deficit that leads to a learning deficit, or if it's something that independently causes both. I think it's mostly an attention deficit that leads to a learning deficit. This would explain why many people with ADHD can become good with stimulating things that so happen to captivate them, it could be video games or instruments for example.
 
I agree with cotcha here, attention paid due to affinity for a subject is of seemingly much greater value in maintaining the information as memory than something of a subject one is totally uninterested in and tries to memorize out of need, using brute force.

In my case, I am severely dyscalculic anyway and likely will never get beyond primary school/very basic secondary school level math, and I can hardly count pocket change-the memory of how far along I am in the calculations just evaporates like a ghost in the wind, it feels very tenuous and insubstantial, and I have never had the slightest interest in the math itself, although it is vital in doing what I do. I have no choice but to depend totally on specialized software for performing chemistry calculations such as making up solutions of X molarity, before I found said software I had to literally relearn the concept of molarity in the fine details (I know the principle itself, its just that every numerical element to it, I have had to learn for each and every single calculation, like, I could have to work out, with extreme difficulty over a long time, how much 99% sulfuric acid or dry NaOH/caustic potash etc. to make up a solution of X molarity, or what weight of ammonia gas is required to prepare what concentrations, and then, once I eventually managed, and have sat down, thrown myself into a videogame or some other distraction, listened to music, read some neuroscience, biotech, genetics, mycology, toxicology etc. textbooks, or other such things I do to relax and clear my head, if I then wanted ANOTHER solution containing a given quantity of some precursor or other to whatever experimental synthesis I'm working on at the time, I would have to actually learn the molarity stuff all over again, and go back clear myself of the resultant pounding headache, for my mental and psychic batteries to recharge. My brain seems in a sense, metaphorically speaking to prefer powering such less-preferred cognition by capacitative discharge rather than steady power. More a mental cockroft-walton generator than mental batteries haha.

To say the very least, I was delighted to find such free software, its really proved enabling in a dramatic sense, and I can get such (literally, physically) nauseating, headache-inducing overloading mathematical excrement over with in half an hour if I am lucky, rather than the planning taking days. In fact my math ability has been getting worse and nowadays I'd probably not be able to function at all, if it were not for the sheer affinity which I have always had, since my youngest years, even before I was able to do the things I wanted to investigate, I sucked up chemistry, neuroscience and biotech like a superbase thirsts for protonation. Such information was to me, like ice cold beer to a man dying of thirst and I greedily harvested every scrap in every science-ey book in the house, which thankfully were in relatively plentiful supply.

I still do. I'll never, ever EVER make a mathematician out of me, and neither could anybody else, but when it comes to scientific pursuits, you will claw my lab from my cold, dead hands, over my dead fucking body.

Would I be a chemist, bio enthusiast, mycology buff, physics freak if I was not classic autie? I doubt it very much actually. Well if I had Asperger's, then yes, quite probably. Or if I were female, then a Rett's chimaera, possibly but as an NT? I really don't think it likely, because I expect the math side, and hating that subject with a fiery passion as I do I think it would put me off the subjects I have no choice but to use the math in order to proceed. But since I've more or less got Hg flowing through my veins and acetonitrile for lymph, piss bromine and shit lead, and I've been so far bent towards the respective fields, that sheer bloody-mindedness and determination actively prevented me from turning away for extraneous difficulties, if I lacked having been gifted the classic autism, I'd never have made it as an NT, because I'd not have had the powerful and irresistable drive towards science that I do.

You guys think crack is addictive? tried it and I can honestly say it has absolutely sweet fucking twat all on psychopharmacology for spesh folk with my sorts of inclinations.

The lab, is, well how to put this...Its kinda my personal haven, for me, and me alone where I can let myself fly free and get totally absorbed in whatever I am working on at the time, no other worries or interferences, my private, personal sanctuary. With just a wee *hint* of Gollum-Grotto to it haha=D
 
I believe that most of your problems are related to your current mental condition rather than your physical condition. If you are stressed out and overthink every aspect of your life, it is reasonable to think that you are having trouble with your memory. Rumination is a bad habit and probably interferes your memorizing- at least my memory is affected by chaotic thinking patterns during psychotic and/or depressive breaks. Medication, in my opinion, is just a short term solution and I would like to advice you to try to meditate in addition to your medication. After 6 weeks of daily meditation your rumination should fade to a noticeably degree. Do you take part in a CognitiveBehavioralTherapy?

A lack of motivation leads to a lesser degree of concentration and therefor to a lesser extent of mental processing. If you want to improve your "memory" you should consider reading about the "levels of processing". Your memory trails are getting deeper as more as you are working with the data you receive, like connecting new information with old information (for example: make a movie sequence in your head with the information you gathered).
The quality of sleep is another important factor for memorizing and so sleeping disorders, which are often correlated with depression, can have an effect, too.

Some questions: Why is it important to you to have knowledge about something you are not interested in? It might come in handy for small talk, but that's it. Find something, which interests you and build up on it and you might find people who are interested in the same topics as you are.

Does it really matter to you what people, who you don't know, think about you? Think about it. There are a lot of weak people out there, who have to manipulate others through bullying, bad mouthing a.s.o., in order to reach their goals, because they can't reach them on their own. Personally I find it amusing to shatter the high self esteem of those, who oppress me, and to make a fool out of them in public by pointing out there logical flaws and inability to have a peacefully conversation. Strong people have the power to help others and ask for help if needed - weak people don't. Try not to bother to much about what other people think about you - you can't and you won't be able to read other people's minds. You are stronger than you think and believe in you getting better.

How is your social life going on? This is my personal area of concern, because I have not been able to socialize without taking drugs or being on medication. A healthy social life is really important for somebodies overall (mental) health and for their cognition. My cognition and memory has gotten better as more as I socialized.


The size of the brain does not determine the intelligence or the pool of skills somebody possesses. The connectivity between the different brain areas is what makes you adaptive and "smart".
 
razorcuts said:
Recently I got a brain MRI and the neurologist scared me by saying that there's a region (parietal cortex) which seems a bit small for my age (33).
He said he doesn't know if this has been this way since birth or if it's something progress.
Click to expand...

A small posterior parietal cortex relative to the average individual is simply an anatomical biomarker of ADHD (see this link/cited reference). It's really not something you should be freaking out about if you've had ADHD since you were a child.
 
razorcuts said:
Recently I got a brain MRI and the neurologist scared me by saying that there's a region (parietal cortex) which seems a bit small for my age (33).
He said he doesn't know if this has been this way since birth or if it's something progress.

I have ADD and most of my symptoms are with executive functions which are all linked to the PFC.

This stuff is worrying me. I have also been suffering from pretty severe stress,depression,anxiety,ocd for many years.

I worry that my psychiatric struggles cause brain atrophy.

I also worry about dumbing down. 3 years ago when I was tested for ADD I had to do concentration exercises in which my performance was not "according to my age".

I also had to do one of these IQ tests where there are 3 field with different patterns/shapes. The 4th field is blank and you have to decide which pattern belongs into this field.
I totally sucked at this test and this also dragged me down.

What I also notice is that I hardly ever understand anything instantly cause there are always things which are unclear to me and all kinds of questions come to my mind.
Even the IQ test with the patterns seemed debatable to me. I felt as if there really isn't 1 clear answer. But the psychologist who had me do the test said that there's always only
1 correct answer. But I felt as if it wasn't really that clear.

Anyway,
I wonder if there are any antidepressants or other psychopharmaceuticals which are especially known for neuroprotection and neurogenesis?

If I knew that some antidepressants are better for this than others then I'd try switching to these antidepressants.

I'm taking Lexapro, Lamotrigine, Vyvanse.


Supplements which I take are:

Daily:
Vitamin C (1-2gr/day)
Vitamin E 400-800mg/day
B vitamin complex
Zinc 10mg
Wheat Grass powder (~10-15gr)
Spirulina
Fish Oil (2gr)
Vitamin A 5000iu

Often but not daily:
Trimethyl-Glycine (supposepdly helps with depression)
Glycine (supposedly helps with inflammation)
Acetyl-L-Carnitine (I heard it boosts cognition)
Choline (I heard it boosts cognition)
Taurine (I heard it's protective against stress and also antioxidative)

I'm not sure if taking these "cognitive boosting" drugs is ok or if this could cause interactions with the prescription drugs I'm taking.
I doubt that there are any studies where they test wether Acetyl-L-Carnitine for example is safe with a SSRI or Lamotrigine.
This worries me a bit.
Click to expand...

razorcuts said:
Recently I got a brain MRI and the neurologist scared me by saying that there's a region (parietal cortex) which seems a bit small for my age (33).
He said he doesn't know if this has been this way since birth or if it's something progress.

I have ADD and most of my symptoms are with executive functions which are all linked to the PFC.

This stuff is worrying me. I have also been suffering from pretty severe stress,depression,anxiety,ocd for many years.

I worry that my psychiatric struggles cause brain atrophy.

I also worry about dumbing down. 3 years ago when I was tested for ADD I had to do concentration exercises in which my performance was not "according to my age".

I also had to do one of these IQ tests where there are 3 field with different patterns/shapes. The 4th field is blank and you have to decide which pattern belongs into this field.
I totally sucked at this test and this also dragged me down.

What I also notice is that I hardly ever understand anything instantly cause there are always things which are unclear to me and all kinds of questions come to my mind.
Even the IQ test with the patterns seemed debatable to me. I felt as if there really isn't 1 clear answer. But the psychologist who had me do the test said that there's always only
1 correct answer. But I felt as if it wasn't really that clear.

Anyway,
I wonder if there are any antidepressants or other psychopharmaceuticals which are especially known for neuroprotection and neurogenesis?

If I knew that some antidepressants are better for this than others then I'd try switching to these antidepressants.

I'm taking Lexapro, Lamotrigine, Vyvanse.
Click to expand...

Razor , Your psych doctor ordered the MRI based on your constant obsession and panicked concern with your " dysfunctional attention, concentration and cognitive difficulties" ? Rest assured that he made brief notes about your history and more than likely wrote ..Hx of Attention deficits, concentration problems etc..Query Organic/Structural vs. Functional) Have you ever been diagnosed with Bipolar ? I'm curious as to the Lamotrigine ,as it isn't 1st line for seizures . However it can be used as a mood stabilizer . I'm making a thorough gestalt and not poking and prodding so don't worry !

Now..If the radiologist read your scan blindly, with no History and with no baseline, it would read as Normal. However, he was asked to find something, so most of the times they will look for the proverbial needle and report on "possible" subtle abnormalities which are definitely still within NORMAL Limits. They will report incidental findings such as Benign cavernomas, capillary telangiectasias, Widened Virchow spaces etc..

The great thing is that you DO NOT have any atrophy in your Frontal, temporal, Occipital or PARIETAL Lobes ! He didn't clean his glasses and maybe thought he seen slight prominence in convexity sulci or widened gyri but that's it. LOL.. That's all . If you have 60 Neurorad's looking at it, 20 will say grossly Normal, 20 will say within 20 limits and the remainder will say slight atrophy.

I would be concerned if he went into a detailed dictation of Hippocampus and temporal lobe atrophy, as this may be indicative of Alzheimers or extreme, long term stress with co-responding Chronic Cortisol elevation. Your Frontal cortex, PFC and your basal ganglia (Left caudate nucleus) is Normal and this efferent circuitry from Substantia Nigra to Thalamus to Caudate Nucleus to Frontal -PFC is grossly intact. There is no findings of white matter lesions (MS or Infarct ) and esp no findings of Iron Deposition , which we typically see with most Neurodegenerative diseases. Even in the early stages.

Parietal lobes are responsible for visual spatial reasoning and abstract problem finding skills. Albert Einstein had 30% larger Parietal lobes. In fact he possessed an area in the parietal region, that is rarely evidenced at all in the average human.
Your memory procedure ( Acquisition, Retention and retrieval ) and multi-modal functioning, multi-tasking and higher executive functioning should be normal , as far as a structural standpoint is concerned.

The differentials that are listed by radiologists start from the most likely to the least likely . I've worked with some of the greatest Neuroradiologists from New York to Stanford , CA and am finishing up here in my hometown in Toronto, Canada.
We have to list every possible differential, no matter how low the percentage is . So if you just had a severe concussion from an Auto accident and we find small bleeds in the absence of larger dural bleeds, we report " Most likely from previous MVA "
Our second in order is 2) Neurodegenerative : Parkinson's , Parkinson's Plus, Alzheimers, Huntington's , Hallervorden Spatz 3) Toxic Exposure and Deposition: MDMA od, spontaneous Hypertensive hemorrhage and Vasospasm from Cocaine, MAO interactions, Drug Interactions, Methanol Ingestion, ethylene glycol Ingestion
4) Deposition: Fahr's disease, Wilson's , Hemochromatosis.

The Lexapro is great for anxiety and less so for depression. Many people find that short-term memory get's affected after a while. Zoloft is better for cognition and has negligible DRI properties at 100mgs + daily. Prozac, if it can be handled can restore Neural tissue to child state resilience and absorbing potential. They all work to increase BDNF to a degree.

DO NOT try and diagnose your own MRI's and get all paralyzed with Anxiety! The large dark areas your referring to are either Bone or Air . Both show up as signal drop-off.

If you want a careful and accurate proper examination and second opinion, Obtain your MRI study from the Hospital etc. You may have to pay $10.00 but if you say it's for a second opinion ( mention any specialist ) they will burn you a copy free of charge.
Once you get it , Load it into any cd/dvd drive/burner and let it load up the images ( 2 mins) Look for the annotation toggle and toggle off. This will take all your personal Info- Name, DOB etc off and will show as just the scanned area with no writing around the image. > Right click on Image and go to export.This will export each slice to the folder you designate. Make sure to use the mouse click scroll down or up so it doesn't skip Images! If you stop for whatever reason , be patient as it takes a while ( 10 secs) for the drive to seek and locate at which image you last left off at. You can Make a folder in the beginning to send to then export into that folder OR you can create a folder eg) Sept MRI and copy or drag all into that folder. Send to me and I will do a full , accurate consult for you, free of charge of course. This will ease your mind and give me additional practice.
I am in post Grad and I can assure you that with the exception of Heavy, long-term use of first generation Anti-psychotics or Ingestion of Toxic chemicals; There's no way any meds you've done , past or present have done any damage to your brain...Strongly approaching zero !

The doctor was correct in a few things, it's not the size but how it works in tandem with other areas of cognition and fortified psyche! Females have smaller brains then males but their Corpus Callosom is much denser than ours , so they have more efficient brains with many tasks and multiple tasking.

I'm convinced that your problems are mostly functional and can be greatly improved on. You just need to be patient and work with your doctors until you tweak enough to find the perfect regimen .

Let me know and either way you can always PM me for any additional help or concerns.

Best.
 
I have seen the radiologist who has several brain MRIs from me dating back to 2000. I was expecting him to take a really close look at the scans but he more or less quickly scrolled through them.
He didn't even look at all angles of the brain. I told him that my psychiatrist showed me some scans which show the head from the side and that at the back of the skull the tissue was less dense
than at the front. I mean I could clearly see this and the psych also saw it.

I was expecting the radiologist to at least look at those side scans but he did not. He only looked at a few pics which show the brain from the top. He said that if there was any loss of brain tissue
then you'd see it in the center of the brain cause there would be loss, too
Click to expand...

It's because THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR BRAIN !!! You're talking about a saggittal plane of acquisition, the slices are from left ear to right ear. You were fixated on the transition where the parietal and temporal tissues we're ending and the mid-line > Basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum were starting to show.If you don't know how far away you moved from the lobes in respect to the Mid-line you will see it as shrinking tissue but it's just leaving that area or structure or moving away, as it's a 3-D replication of the brain.

The Planes of Acquisition are Axial ( top of the scalp down to the mandible, cerebellum and brain stem) Saggittal ( Left ear to right ear ) and Coronal ( Eyes and ocular cavities and sinuses to the back of the head [occiput] )

You're going into a tail spin and feeding a never ending Obsessive compulsive loop. This is causing you a Big block and is disabling you to see the forest from the tree's and focus your efforts on what seems to be the more likely concern here.
You should treat your OCD and preoccupy yourself with what you can do and are good at. Nobody got good at their interests or professions by getting stuck on how they used to be. Or if there was just "one thing they could have avoided or changed they would have that dream job and lifestyle" It takes failures, thousands of dead ends, Tonnes of Hard work and infinite passion. Look what Sekio showed you, he failed numerous times, as did I but the people that work endlessly and learn from their mistakes are destined to succeed eventually. Have you ever heard the expression " Persistence and Consistency trumps Raw Talent" ?

You concern yourself with the important things. Make valuable use of every minute and set yourself small regular goals and you will find yourself in a much more prosperous and happier state of mind in a years time.

Razorcuts, Life is hard enough with what we actually have to deal with every day. Don't make it harder by allowing needless worry, with non-existing obsessions, to make it impossible by freezing you up !

Best.
 
Hi everyone! Thanks for your replies.


I went on lamotrigine for different reasons:
-i read it may help with unipolar depression
-i'm also very irritable i thought maybe lamotrigine helps with this if it blocks excessive glutamate

how much lamotrigine really helps is hard to say. it's the same issue as with antidepressants. no antidepressant
which i tried really seemed to make a noticable difference. i have always been depressed and anxious and antidepressants
don't change this. AT BEST antidepressants may ease some symptoms like ocd or anxiety but they won't change the way
I am, unfortunately.

---

yes, stress and depression make cognition worse.
cause of this i also cannot really tell how much of my problems are "normal" or not.
i couldn't even tell cause there are too many factors involved here.

for example ADD symptoms can also be caused by depression or schizophrenia.
then i could also think what if i'm actually schizo and dont have ADD?
stuff like that can make me worry even more.

due to my personal issues and my circumstances which really depress me and also cause a lot of
existential fear my general anxiety also goes up.

for whatever reason i have always been prone to depression,anxiety,ocd even when i was young.
the difference is that when i was young i didnt have any real issues.
back then i was afraid of diseases,germs,dirt. these things kept me busy.

but now i have far greater things to worry about than germs and because of this the depression,anxiety,ocd
are also much worse.

if i had no real worries in life then i would still have these issues, only on a smaller level. if i was rich and had
tons of friends then i'd still worry about things and not feel happy. if i ever had a state where i felt happy then i'd
be afraid of losing it which again would cause me to not be happy anymore.

-----

I don't know how capable I am of learning certain things.
learning and understanding stuff on my own with nobody to ask doesn't work. i know that.
when i deal with something then i get tons of questions! it's like this with everything. i have so many questions about everything.
but if i cannot get these questions answered then i also cannot develop a real understanding and it also discourages me.

i think that ocd makes this issue worse. i am really pedantic. i get questions which other people don't seem to get.
if i had a personal teacher who would explain stuff to me and who i could ask all my questions then maybe i could learn stuff like chemistry (at least a bit)
but on my own this would never work.

for example i looked into a chemistry book for med students. this book was supposedly self-explanatory. it said that this contains everything MDs need to know
about chemistry. i looked at the first few pages and i didn't understand it. i mean i could not simply have used this book and then worked through it.
but this made me feel stupid. i mean if this book says it contains all info which you need and that it explains everything and i still cannot work with it then this
means i'm not smart enough for it.

what also frustrates me is knowing that i hardly know anything.
if i could turn back the time and go to school again then i would be much more curious and much more interested. back then i wasnt interested in anything i just did
what i had to do.

i think about all kinds of things and then wonder how does this work, how does that work? and i have no clue.
for example i read a book about nutrition which was written by a pharmacist. he wrote about different vitamins and dosages and so on.
in this book there were many pictures which showed chains of chemical reactions and how substances are turned into other substances in the body.
i do not have the slightest clue about how this works. i don't even understand how they can make these reactions visible so that they can describe
these chains.
What machines do they use for this? Do they look through some sort of microscope and then they can tell "that's substance X" and now it's metabolized
into substance Y through this and that way?

I'd already be glad if I at least had a basic understanding of how these things work.

For example if you know how the first computers during world war 2 worked then you also have a slight imaginations how computers work in general.
But I do not even have this basic understanding of things and that makes me feel stupid.

But on the other hand I also don't have the motivation to sit down and then read books about how things work only in order to become more educated cause
then I think what's the point now where I am already so old? If I was 10 years old then trying to educate myself would make sense but at this point in time
it doesn't seem to make a huge difference anymore.

i feel like there are different kinds of humans. i mean they clearly are not all the same. some function on levels which are so much higher than others.
some people wash dishes and other people build space crafts. this blows my mind.
it's really depressing when you use technology but at the same time you do not have the slightest clue how it works. if it broke then you'd be absolutely helpless.

if i went back in time 300 years and had some technological gadgets with me then the people would think i you must be a god or at least an incredibly
intelligent being but in reality i'm no way more intelligent than them. if the gadgets stopped working then i couldn't repair them.

i think that there are humans which are somehow extraordinary and they help advance technology and they actually make the difference but i cannot feel good about
things which others achieved knowing that i have no part in this.

I get caught up in such thoughts very often. I think that people who aren't in the same situation can't understand this. For them it's easy to say that knowing a lot it's
that important. If you're really good at one thing then you don't have to know a lot in general. Then at least you can say that you are good at one thing. But I don't even
have this one thing.

----

The MRI imagines which the psychiatrist showed me were coronal and there it was clearly visible that the brain tissue was much more dense at the front of the head than at the back of
the head.

It's interesting to know that the parietal cortex is thinner in people with ADHD. Why did my psychiatrist not know this? This is disappointing.

But I also don't really know if I have genuine ADD or if I simply have many symptoms of ADD. I only know that as a child I didnt struggle or behave abnormal.
The limitations only become obvious under the proper circumstances.

After being scared by my psychiatrist I went to the same radiologist again who took the pics and told him what the psych said. But he did not even look at these coronal shots! He more or less quickly scrolled through the scans and then showed me axial shots and said that there is
no shrinking in the center of the brain and that this means everything is alright.

But this didn't really comfort me that much because he didn't take very much time and he also only looked at a few shots.
I think he simply didn't feel like it's necessary to go through the pictures again but I would have expected him to do this.

I don't know how much time other radiologists take to examine scans but he goes through them rather quickly. He doesn't sit there and then stare at every single
picture for 20 seconds before going to the next one. Maybe this isn't even necessary, I don't know.
But what if he misses small details cause he's only looking for really obvious abnormalities?

For example what's also strange is that for the first time he said that I have a small arachinoidal cyst. He NEVER mentioned this before in any of the brain MRIs which I
got over the years. I would have remembered that.
But this time he said something like "and there you have a small cyst, like I already mentioned before" but he never mentioned that before!

Stuff like that also doesn't increase your faith in a doctor.


-------


I take 10mg Lexapro and I really can't tell if it makes any difference.

Unless I take something which makes me feel noticably better I have no way of telling if it helps at all.

My reason for adding Lexapro 10mg was simply cause I worried that the amphetamines (when taken alone) will decrease
serotonin even further and make ocd worse.

I read that dopamine lowers serotonin. Cause of this it simply seems to make sense to me to just take a SSRI and since Lexapro has
the least metabolic interactions I chose it.

Prozac doesn't mix well with amphetamines. I read this at Charles Parker's site. He says that prozac and amphetamines are both metabolized
through 2d6 and that this can be a problem cause prozac can make amphetamine levels go up over time until they reach a toxic level.

Sertraline would have been an option however I have a psychopharmacology book which says that sertraline should not be mixed with lamotrigine
because if you mix both then this affects how lamotrigine is metabolized. somehow it uses a different path and this creates toxic byproducts which
raise the risk of SJS.

i could not find much info about this interaction online. but since this one book warns against it i didnt want to take any risks.

Last year I took Vortioxetine for a few months. Also didn't notice a huge difference but it also had no side effects.

But when I started with lamotrigine I asked my psychiatrist if I should get off vortioxetine because it's a new drug and there could be interactions with
lamotrigine which aren't even known yet, similar as with sertraline. he said that just to be safe i should better not take these 2 drugs together.

if i knew that vortioxetine + lamotrigine is safe then i'd take vortioxetine instead of lexapro but new drugs are always riskier than old drugs cause you never
know if there are interactions or side effects which arent known yet.

Prozac, if it can be handled can restore Neural tissue to child state resilience and absorbing potential.
Click to expand...

Does only prozac do this of all SSRIs?

If prozac didnt have such a long halflife and had less drug interactions then I would have tried it already.

I also worry a bit about the risk of serotonin syndrome from mixing ssri with amphetamines.

I read that sometimes quitting the drugs already stops the serotonin syndrome but you cant do this with prozac cause it stays in the body that long.
that's a huge disadvantage.
 
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