![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by WaterSapphire on August 27, 2008, at 4:04:36
I didn't know whether to put this under the med board or here. I had one urine test that showed elevated normetanephrines and dopamine on a 24 hour level. This may be medically related to something other than my mental health, may be causing my mental health problems, or be directly caused by my mental health problems. I do not know what is going on. My normetanephrine was 570. I am wondering if there is anything to alleviate this problem if I should have no medical reason other that my ocd and anxiety causing it. In the past I have taken things like abilify, paxil, klonopin, seroquel, neurontin,
wellbutrin, elavil, lexapro, celexa, buspar, xanax, ativan...goodness...
I do not feel any of them helped much at all except for some help with the neurontin, and klonopin. Seroquel was not so bad either but I gained too much weight and am fat already so the doctor didn't let me go back on it.I don't know what else to ask. I guess this is enough for now. Please let me know if you have any clues...
Thanks
Posted by Racer on September 8, 2008, at 11:52:32
In reply to Meds that help lower normetanephrine + dopamine?, posted by WaterSapphire on August 27, 2008, at 4:04:36
Posted by WaterSapphire on September 9, 2008, at 5:54:26
In reply to Meds that help lower normetanephrine + dopamine?, posted by WaterSapphire on August 27, 2008, at 4:04:36
At the moment I am on no medicine. I just take the mag and potassium, but have lowered the magnesium down for now. Ahh, but the God awful return of leg cramps sux. The endo I saw, dunno if he is gonna find anything or help me is not putting me on anything until I get some of these tests done including another urine catecholamine panel. I wish he would have just taken the serum one, but I am not sure if he did that day lol when he took blood. So, no meds. Need to get something for bp and stuff, but they are giving me nothing for now...
Sorry that was so long...have an awesome Tuesday
Posted by Racer on September 9, 2008, at 9:16:36
In reply to Racer..., posted by WaterSapphire on September 9, 2008, at 5:54:26
>
> Sorry that was so long...You've read my posts -- on average they're novel length, so don't ever apologize for length!
Hm... OK, I gotta think on the whole thing more before I can say anything semi-intelligent about it. (Even semi-coherent seems unlikely right at this moment...) I do think I'd go with the urine screen, rather than blood, but that's my bias and likely based on ignorance: blood is a fairly immediate snapshot, while urine gives more of a summary of a period of time. (See what I mean about coherency?) Urine also shows a picture which includes something about the metabolism of the various biochemical systems.
The catecholamines are all synthesized from dietary elements, so I would expect what you eat to have a fairly significant impact on their levels. I know I come back to this a lot -- listen, it's the most helpful exercise I've ever tried in getting halfway decent treatment from a doctor -- but a detailed food journal to go with that picture might be helpful. Or not. It could be that the doctor in question really isn't planning to listen to you, no matter what. If that turns out to be the case, remember my story of my dentist: sometimes a caring yet technically lacking professional can learn the information necessary to treat you, whereas the technically savvy yet arrogant fellow can't learn to give a rat's @$$.
Good luck, and if my brain decides to check in today, I'll look at this again...
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Neurotransmitters | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.