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I’ve been feeling really out of it the past couple days. Part of it is that I’m sick, but it’s more than just a the cold that I have. I feel like it’s hard to focus on one thing at a time. I want to go to bed all the time but then if I try i just lie there with my eyes open. I think I have found out why i am feeling this way.
A couple days after I got sick I went to the school’s clinic to get some drugs to make me feel better. I knew I had a cold caused by a virus that I caught because I partied to hard on New Years, so I was rather dreading going to the clinic where I would have to listen to everbody there speculate about what was wrong with me and how I should change my lifestyle so that I won’t get sick anymore. I have little patience for Chinese kindness when I am sick, I know they all mean well, but I just want to lie in my bed to be left in my misery. I get to the clinic and the doctor dosn’t really speak any english so, the students translate. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, they figured out what was wrong with me pretty quick and they didn’t give me an IV or tell me to go to the hospital.
But then they start to give me drugs, First the doctor pulls out antibiotics, they give me antibiotics like they do everytime I go there. (It’s nice that I have a big supply of antibiotics. If I ever get anthrax or gonorrhea I’ll be ready, but they are useless against the common cold.) Then she gets anther box of Green and yellow “Quike” pills, I look at the ingriedients list in english and the only one I recognise is caffeine. She throws in some asprin for my slight fever, and last I am happy to see her throw in some chinese medicine Bingdukoufuye, which tastes like flowers (I think I’ll have one right now…… mmm tasty). I point to my mucus filled nose, to see if she will give me some pseudephederine (sudafed) for it, but she just points to the “Quicke” pills.
So I make it home, and take my meds. I decide to go onto the internet and look up what I am taking. I can’t find anything good about the chinese medicine, but I do find that the main ingriedient in the “Quike” pills, amantadine (not to be confused with Anandimide, an endogenous cannabinoid) is a potent anti-viral agent used to fight the flew and hepititis. Another ingredient is supposed to stop my nose from running so I figure it sounds like powerful medicine and might as well see what it does to me.
The strange thing is that the main use for amantadine is for treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. In this case the drug is not being used as an antiviral, but instead is being used for it’s effects in the brain. I was a neuroscience major in College so I know a little about Parkinson’s disease(check out the authors on the link). In Parkinson’s neuron’s which secrete dopamine (a neurotransmitter) in a certain part of the brain start to die, and this causes the motor dysfunctions associated with Parkinson’s. At the time I think, “hmm that’s intersting I wonder how the drug can be both anti-viral and relieve parkinsonion symptoms, I wonder how it works in the brain? I’ll just take it, I can’t feel anyworse than I do now”
I keep taking it over the weekend and my condition steadily improves. Yesterday I almost felt normal but today I felt a sore throat coming back, so I popped another “quicke.” Tonight I need to sit down in front of my computer and do some work for an exam later this week. Nothing to hard, but it needs to get done. Instead, I’m flying over the internet like a mad man unable to focus on one thing, at the same time I feel strangley tried and wonder if I shouldn’t just go to bed.
In one of my random jaunts across the internet I decide to see how Amantadine actually works, i.e. it’s pharmacology. So I find this nice little site. It tells me that…
“While the mechanism of action of amantadine in the treatment in Parkinson’s… is unknown, it is believed to release brain dopamine from nerve endings making it more available to activate dopaminergic receptors.
The thing about dopamine is that it’s not just related to Parkinson’s, Every addictive drug is also known “to release brain dopamine from nerve endings making it more available to activate dopaminergic receptors.” If this is true it almost guarentees that Amantadine has abuse potential. It also might mean that it has effects similar to drugs which increase dopamine, such as cocaine. This could explian my rapidly shifting thoughts. But it gets better..
“A small number of suicidal attempts, some of which have been fatal, have been reported in patients treated with amantadine. The incidence of suicidal attempts is not known and the pathophysiologic mechanism is not understood. Suicidal attempts and suicidal ideation have been reported in patients with and without prior history of psychiatric illness. Amantadine can exacerbate mental problems in patients with a history of psychiatric disorders or substance abuse. “[Don't worry, I'm not feeling suicidal, but thanks for your concern]
That’s nice to know, (it should also be noted that this same side effect is found with SSRI’s (e.g. Prozac), but are largerly underreported.) and not that I have been feeling suicidal lately, but I havn’t really felt myself these last couple days. Hell one of the side effects of this drug, was posting this long rambling piece in the first place.
So what’s the point of all this? You can get strange drugs in China (or america), just be prepared for the effects.