I was shocked to learn that TZN works by decreasing the dopamine in the brain.

According to Wilkipedia

Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (involved in lactation), sleep, mood, attention, and learning. Dopaminergic neurons (i.e., neurons whose primary neurotransmitter is dopamine) are present chiefly in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain, the substantia nigra pars compacta, and the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.

In the frontal lobes, dopamine controls the flow of information from other areas of the brain. Dopamine disorders in this region of the brain can cause a decline in neurocognitive functions, especially memory, attention, and problem-solving.

Too top it off Parkinson's the main cause of brain damage is depletion of Dopamine

How could a drug that depletes dopamine - such a key part of our brain be an effective in the fight in to treat the disease

AR

'Carpe Diem'

This would answer your question.

[www.jneurosci.org]

You raise a very good point. A lot of drugs have been tried in HD which block important neurotransmitters and they haven't been successful. For example, remacemide, a glutamate blocker, was tried in the CARE-HD study and it didn't help. HD brains are known to be very sensitive to glutamate, the theory is called excitotoxicity. However, glutamate is a very important neurotransmitter. A doctor named Stuart Lipton developed memantine to regulate glutamate. It's effective in Alzheimer's and clinical reports as well as mouse studies are suggesting that it may be effective in HD as well.

ACR16 is a dopamine regulator. If dopamine levels are low, it will raise them but if they are too high, it will lower them. That's why I am cautiously optimistic that this drug will help.

Thanks Marsha

Actually two of the supplements I take for this very reason for the importance of glutamate are NAC which is a precursor to glutathione, as well as glutathione itself -is this something that you recommend

AR

'Carpe Diem'

So is reducing dopamine good or bad? Eric's article suggests it's good, i think? But im not sure? Hope someone can explain that.

And Marsha, I had no idea what acr16 actually did or how it worked, no matter how many times i looked it up, i couldnt figure it out. Thanks so much for saying it regulates dopamine...one more person, little less confused

It is good if we have doctors that understand how meds work. I do not think we can categorically say if reducing dopamine is good or bad. Reducing dopamine or blocking dopamine receptors seems logical for managing chorea, but what seems logical to me does not necessariy mean that a particular med is "bad" for everyone.

When my wife's psychiatrist suggested trying Wellbutrin (that ads dopamine) as part of her depression treatment, he mentioned that it could increase her chorea. Yet, when we tried it, it soon helped her depression and did not affect her chorea.

There's some cell model data which suggests that people with the HD gene are abnormally sensitive to dopamine. I believe there's also some data to suggest that during the course of the disease, an individual may have too much of it or too little of it. If both these things are true, that might explain why drugs which block or deplete dopamine might be helpful for some and not for others at given times and would be an argument for a dopamine stabilizer which can cause or lower dopamine accordingly.

As for supplements, the only ones I recommend for my loved ones with HD are the ones with mouse data to back them up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2009 10:43AM by Marsha.

Hi AR-

My wife has been on TBZ for about 2 years now, it is being used to control her Chorea which had gotten so extreme that she could not function at all and was losing so much weight it became life threatening.

It works very well for her,I truly believe she would not be here any longer without it but it requires a doctors scrutiny due to the possibly severe side effects.(as described in your quote)

Jamie