If anyone's interested, I was prescribed Riluzole (aka Rilutek) monotherapy for treatment-resistant OCD and depression. I began at 1/4 of the standard dose, i.e. 25mg a day, and have progressively worked my way up to 50mg b.i.d. over the past 4 weeks.
Strangely, I've noticed restlessness/internal tension, bouts of restless leg syndrome, trouble sleeping and a combination of mental activation and physical fatigue. There's also an enhanced sense of color perception, which resembles an effect I experienced while on Memantine.
Supposedly, the drug can take 6+ weeks to work, but what I'm experiencing definitely isn't a placebo reaction, and I'm sort of at a loss to explain it -- I've contacted a couple of researchers who oversaw trials in depression and anxiety and none reported seeing the described effects. What's more, my prescribing physician has never used the drug before, so that's a dead end.
I've tried pretty much everything (legal) under the sun for my condition, shy of ECT, so am growing a little distressed over all this.
Can anyone begin to piece together while the above side-effects might be occurring? Here's the MOA according to wikipedia:
Interestingly, I was reading a study where the drug was trialed against d-amphetamine in a series of cognitive tests. A lot of the subjects described an acute feeling of stimulation while on Riluzole; the researchers hypothesized that the effect was the result of its AMPA-receptor agonism, which often seems to go unreported-on, so I wasn't sure if that might be playing a part. Anyway, I'm just hoping/wondering if the side-effects might pass soon.
Strangely, I've noticed restlessness/internal tension, bouts of restless leg syndrome, trouble sleeping and a combination of mental activation and physical fatigue. There's also an enhanced sense of color perception, which resembles an effect I experienced while on Memantine.
Supposedly, the drug can take 6+ weeks to work, but what I'm experiencing definitely isn't a placebo reaction, and I'm sort of at a loss to explain it -- I've contacted a couple of researchers who oversaw trials in depression and anxiety and none reported seeing the described effects. What's more, my prescribing physician has never used the drug before, so that's a dead end.
I've tried pretty much everything (legal) under the sun for my condition, shy of ECT, so am growing a little distressed over all this.
Can anyone begin to piece together while the above side-effects might be occurring? Here's the MOA according to wikipedia:
Interestingly, I was reading a study where the drug was trialed against d-amphetamine in a series of cognitive tests. A lot of the subjects described an acute feeling of stimulation while on Riluzole; the researchers hypothesized that the effect was the result of its AMPA-receptor agonism, which often seems to go unreported-on, so I wasn't sure if that might be playing a part. Anyway, I'm just hoping/wondering if the side-effects might pass soon.
