17 replies to this topic

[Heisenburger]

So I’ve decided to give memantine a whirl. From what I’ve read so far, it’s prudent to start with small doses and build up gradually. I have a 30-milliter bottle coming from Ceretropic sometime in the next few days. Half a milliliter of the solution is 10 milligrams. Is that too much for a starting dose? The smallest pipette I have can measure a minimum of 0.5 milliliters, so I’m thinking of diluting it 50/50 or possibly even 25/75 with PG. Should I maybe start with 2.5 milligrams the first week, 0.5 milligrams the second week, 7.5 milligrams the third week, and so forth? Or should I just dive right in with a 10 milligram dose? Supposedly it has sort of an ‘anti-nootropic’ effect for the first three to seven days of use. Should I start on my days off so it doesn’t affect my work performance? What’s the maximum dosage I should eventually build to?

[AlmostEasy]

The pipette isn't really necessary the dropper is large enough so you can pull out .25 ml or even .125 ml easily enough, it doesn't need to be laser precise.  Personally I started at 2.5 mg just because I'm in school and can't afford to be handicapped for several days.  A gradual titration is all you need, you'll be fine.  Starting at 10 mg is absolutely risking major side effects.  If you can afford that, sure, but if not, patience will be rewarded.

 

I personally am still playing with dosage but I made it up to 30 mg for a couple days and I was fine.  I then went down to 5 mg immediately and honestly I'm feeling much better there, but it could be because I have the carryover from the long half life along with a smaller immediate dosage so maybe it's the best of both worlds with strong momentum and less brain fog.  It'll be a while before I find the sweet spot.

 

Here's the recommended Namenda dosing:

 

The recommended starting dose of NAMENDA is 5 mg (2.5 mL) once daily. The dose should be increased in 5 mg increments to 10 mg/day (2.5 mL twice daily), 15 mg/day (2.5 mL and 5 mL as separate doses), and 20 mg/day (5 mL twice daily). The minimum recommended interval between dose increases is one week. The dosage shown to be effective in controlled clinical trials is 20 mg/day (5 mL twice daily).

 

 

Best of luck 

Edited by AlmostEasy, 30 May 2015 - 10:27 PM.

[Heisenburger]

Thanks for the input. This helps a lot. It was actually your thread that got me interested in this compound. After an hour or two of Googling, I decided that it is definitely something which bears investigation. I’m tracking the package; it looks like it’s coming today, and I have today and the next two days off, so this should work out perfectly. It’s too bad AllDayChemist raised their shipping rate to $25.00—it used to be $15.00. I love that outfit. Their generic Cipla Nasonex was a lifesaver for me a few years ago when my rhinitis got so back I was ready to blow my head off. I’ll keep a dosage log in an Excel spreadsheet and report back in a month or so with my results.

[Heisenburger]

Err..'bad,' not 'back.' It came today; you were right about the dropper. Took 2.5 as a starting dose. Seems to be making me a bit absentminded; I just went to set my alarm clock and turned off the aquarium light instead, which is right next to it. So far everything seems OK though.

[Kingsley]

Heisenburger:

 

I am also greatly interested in trying memantine and am following AlmostEasy's thread as well.  Any updates on your memantine experience?  Benefits? Side effects? Titration schedule? Tips?

[Heisenburger]

So far so good. So good that I’m already considering making it a permanent addition to my stack. Results seem to be somewhat mixed though. This is day six of 2.5 mgs., and at first I noticed a significant increase in my ability to multitask and complete tasks efficiently. But today it seemed to make me a little anxious and befuddled. For example, last night I was unloading the dishwasher, and instead of doing it in my usual haphazard fashion, my mind immediately sorted everything by category and I rapidly picked out all the knives and put them in the knife slot, all the spoons and stuck them in the appropriate spot, and then quickly sorted all the different cups by type and put them away without stopping to think what goes where. But today I felt a little tense and distracted. I have several people in my life right now who are natterers—people who never shut up and just drone on and on about pointless things. I noticed they were getting on my nerves more than usual. I’ll give it another week or two and see how it goes; it’s probably too early to make any definitive assessment at this point.

[Kingsley]

So far so good. So good that I’m already considering making it a permanent addition to my stack. Results seem to be somewhat mixed though. This is day six of 2.5 mgs., and at first I noticed a significant increase in my ability to multitask and complete tasks efficiently. But today it seemed to make me a little anxious and befuddled. For example, last night I was unloading the dishwasher, and instead of doing it in my usual haphazard fashion, my mind immediately sorted everything by category and I rapidly picked out all the knives and put them in the knife slot, all the spoons and stuck them in the appropriate spot, and then quickly sorted all the different cups by type and put them away without stopping to think what goes where. But today I felt a little tense and distracted. I have several people in my life right now who are natterers—people who never shut up and just drone on and on about pointless things. I noticed they were getting on my nerves more than usual. I’ll give it another week or two and see how it goes; it’s probably too early to make any definitive assessment at this point.

 

Sounds very promising, and at such a low dose.  The mixed results seem to be a common theme with memantine judging from accounts I have read.  I read somewhere that getting consistent results can depend on dosing at the same time every day without deviation.  Also, I read that the extended release version can help to smooth things out, but I don't think there is a generic version as it is still under patent.  So, probably price-prohibitive unless insurance would cover it, which is probably a pipe dream.

 

Keep us updated!
 

[atrw55]

I have insomnia for memantine using. memantine is agonist d2. to be the cause?

[Kingsley]

I have insomnia for memantine using. memantine is agonist d2. to be the cause?

 

Probably a reasonable guess since dopamine agonists stimulate and stimulation can cause insomnia. 

 

What do you use memantine for, and what types of benefits do you get from it?  Any other side effects?
 

[Flex]

edit

Edited by Flex, 10 June 2015 - 06:52 PM.

[AlmostEasy]

How are you things going with the memantine?

[theCLK]

I want to know as well! Heisenburger?

[Heisenburger]

Tried it for a while and wound up just giving it up. Now I can’t even remember why. It just had some sort of negative effect on me that outweighed the benefits. I offered it to a friend at work who suffers from OCD, and he wasn’t interested in trying it, so I just wound up flushing the rest.

[Baten]

Tried it for a while and wound up just giving it up. Now I can’t even remember why. It just had some sort of negative effect on me that outweighed the benefits.

 

Sounds like the infamous bad memantine recall :P

 

I personally (kind of) love memantine. It lowers tolerance to nearly all other cool substances. It makes me smarter at times, but does hamper recall at other times. It makes me happy at times, but makes me depressed at other times.

 

It's one of those substance I sometimes take, when I don't really know what else might aid me at that specific time.

[Catwoman]

I'm reading up on it...again...I want to ask a pdoc about it. I'm looking for something for intrusive thoughts(as I'm not happy with ssri's) and memantine could be something...

[jack black]

Tried it for a while and wound up just giving it up. Now I can’t even remember why. It just had some sort of negative effect on me that outweighed the benefits. I offered it to a friend at work who suffers from OCD, and he wasn’t interested in trying it, so I just wound up flushing the rest.

Yeah, I have been taking it for a while as it's supposed to help in ADHD and ASD. I had both positive and negative effects. The positive lasted only a couple of days after starting or increasing the dose. Clear minded, more energetic, probably dopinergic. The negative is more dyslexia, misspellings (thanks God for spell check and autocorrect), and forgetfulness, likely anti-cholinergic. I made a silly mistake of ommission at work yesterday and decided to stop it today. No difference yet, but low half-life of course.

But, I would never ever flush meds down the drain for the benefits of fellow people drinking water from the same river.

[jack black]

I made a silly mistake of ommission at work yesterday and decided to stop it today. No difference yet, but low half-life of course.

Lol, of course I meant long life and not low life. To be fair, I had dyslexia since forever, so I can't blame it all on memantine.
I actually discovered another mistake at work from yesterday, so I'm glad I stopped it.
BTW, I feel noticeably more tired tonight, possibly from the discontinuation.

Edited by jack black, 04 November 2016 - 01:33 AM.

[jack black]

I feel noticeably more tired tonight, possibly from the discontinuation.

Sure enough, today (no memantine day 2) is not a good day. Sad, sluggish and hard to focus at work. I guess memantine was working for me, but I was used to the effects and credited tianeptine for it.

The last time I discontinued memantine I didn't notice bad effects, but I was on lower dose (5mg vs 10mg), it was on weekend, and I phased in another ADHD med (amantidine).

I have to update my old memantine thread with these results.