Posted by Paul the Pharmacist on March 29, 2001 at 09:50:17:
I didnt realize their was a correlation between 5w4 and add.Sometimes i wonder if their is a correlation between autism and exreme five behavior. I want to try to answer your question but I dont want to BS you either. As far as Ritalin ADD and point five go let me give you an analogy. I dont "know" (for whatever its worth-It gives you some sort of a directional guidline) your MB type but since you are 5w4 I am going to guess you prefer Intuition over Sensation so an NT analogy shouldnt bother you. Despite what a sensation type might say you CAN easily compare apples and oranges because they are both fruits.
Way back in 1980 I was an officer in the US Public health Service working with the Apaches in AZ. I got a transfer to Phoenix where I was assigned to writing essays on the description and treatment of certain diseases. One of them was Rheumatoid Arthritis.
This is not the place for a detailed descriptin of the disease. Suffice it to say it is a destructive arthritis due to an HYPERACTIVE immune system. I was discussing the drugs used t treat it and a drug called Levamisole was mentioned. It is no longer used in RA but briefly stated Levamisole STIMULATES the immune system. I was trying to put my essay into a logical framework so I asked myself "how can a drug that stimulates the immune system be valuable in a disease where the immune system is already in overdrive. I reasoned that perhaps there was a subset of immune system lymphocytes that acted as "brakes" on the immune system rather than stimulating it. You can use the yin-yang analogy. While most of the immune cells are yang there is a subset of Yin type cells.I stated in the article that since the immune system of a pat with Rheumatoid Arthritis was already in overdrive and maximaly stimulated if you gave the patient an immune stimulant like Levamisole the only immune cells left to stimulate were the yin type immune cells (I didnt of course use the yin yang analogy in my report)so the net effect of Levamisole administration in RA pts was REDUCTION in the activity of the immune system.
My commandingofficer was in shock. It turns out this was a theory of immunology that had recently been discovered( the idea of supressor-type immune cells. You have t understand that immunology has grown leaps and bounds in the past 20 years. He couldt believe I had reason all that out myself in the Pheoneix Indian Medical Center Library as nothing had been published yet and there was no way i could have used references from Immunology articles.
Getting back to ADD in this situation certain breain centers are already maximally stimulated and probably cant be pushed into any higher gear. Ritalin is a dopamine inducing stimulant like an amphetamine but as there is a depressant (yin) part of the cerebral cortex it is possible that Ritalin stimulates the only thing in the brain left to stimulate ie the "yin" brain so the net result is a DECREASE in hyperactivity and flight of ideas. This is just an hypothesis as I dont know too much about the pathology and pharmacology of ADD.Sometimes you can get into more trouble knowing a little bit than nothing at all