The psychosis has been flaring for me today, thats just the way it is with me, I have attcks of psychosis every couple days. Today I did something differently, I took an ibuprofen to treat a headach earlier, and the psychosis remained dormant! Its been a couple hours and I’m starting to feel psychotic again, I took another ibuprofen. I’ll report back how I feel.
Is it possible anti-inflammatory meds can suppress psychosis? Is it being researched? What do you think, have I found a cure (for me)?
I don’t think anti inflammatory meds treat psychosis. But I’m glad you’re having a good day.
I’m feeling quite psychotic right now, so I wouldn’t call it a good day exactly.
I’ve never heard of any studies looking at ibuprofen in that way before.
no clue, though i have read NSAIDs are under investigation for possibilities of treating depression
I was going to suggest that it might have something to do with thinning your blood since that’s what ibuprofen does. I do often get headaches though and my doctor has sent me to neurologists before because of said head aches.
I’d just be careful of how strong of a dose your taking and how often you’re taking them. I’ve never heard of treating mental illnesses with ibuprofen, but if it’s helping you cope that is a good temporary thing
You should also be careful if you have heart disease, high cholesterol, or high blood preassre if you plan on taking iburpofen/advil.
Overdosing on ibuprofen can cause stomach damage, cautions Drugs.com. Adults should not take more than 800 milligrams per dose or 3,200 milligrams per day. To decrease the risk of stomach bleeding, patients should not drink alcohol when taking ibuprofen. Some people may have an allergic reaction to ibuprofen, and side effects are possible. Ibuprofen may interact with other medicines, vitamins and herbal products.
Something you should read:
@sohare1981 Is right about being careful. This is something you should discuss with your pdoc.
Update, I don’t think its working, the psychosis seems to be getting much worse.
I only took about 2x200mg in total.
I take my meds in about an hour anyway, hopefully that will be enough to stop the psychosis today. If not I’ll have to add on 200mg seroquel alongside.
Thanks for your advice, I think my experiment today was a failure.
On the contrary I think it was a success. Well done. There is solid research backing up your approach. It also works for me - I hurt my back some years ago and was given a NSAID injection and noticed my near constant self referencing and paranoid delusions vanish. Even the AP meds I was on never made much of a dent in my delusions of reference. I have experimented since and have found for me a bundle of meds/ supps etc that generally keep the delusions at bay.
The fact that you feel that it didnt work was because our AP medications make us depended on them. Yes they may antagonize the dopamine receptors - and provide some meager relief - but in so doing the brain upregulates those same receptors - hence now they are more of them and they are even more sensitive than before - hence you need their medications even more - welcome to being a life long consumer.
Your idea to tapering off the AP alongside the NSAID is a valid one but has to be done very carefully and over a long period of time along with a number of support amino acids , vitamins and supplements.
But congratulations your experiment was a success considering what you are up against ! Just needs more work and refinement.
personally don’t feel like it worked at all, perhaps i need to try an anti inflammatory med which is more targeted at the brain. of course such medicines exist for autoimmune diseases. my friend has multiple sclerosis and he takes immune suppressants, if they worked for sz they would probably know by now.
as for upregulation of dopamine receptors when using antipsychotics, i presented that possibility to my pdoc and he dismissed it as “theory” so im not very worried about that. im on a low dose as it is, tapered down significantly with my doctor.
i believe meds do create dependence, otherwise psychosis wouldn’t be a side effect of withdrawal. still, if dopamine isn’t the sole cause of the psychosis then how can upregulation of dipamine receptors cause worsening of psychosis over time.
i think we are all individuals when it comes yo this illness, where in some the medications are very difficult to get off of while in others its less of an issue.
also what about partial agonists like abilify which im on, do they cause upregulation over time? what about loose binding antipsychotics like seroquel and clozapine? clearly there is more to be understood.
I don’t believe ibufen on it’s own works against psychosis… but for me when I am in physical pain my mind reacts and I start to have symptoms of psychosis…
Not sure about Ibuprofen for psychotic illness, but if you are taking Lithium do NOT take Ibuprofen, it will increase blood levels of lithium which can be a problem.
Lithium + Acetaminophen is ok
Lithium + Ibuprofen/Aleve is NOT ok
Ibuprofen works great on minor aches and pains. For more severe aches and pains, there is prescription strength medicine like Naproxen. That’s what I take everyday. And it works great along with daily exercise.
Yes. There all have slightly different effects and bind differently to various receptors. Most times these are not studied or documented and the only way to find one that works for you is trial and error.
But Keep Trying !
@firemonkey posted a great study - here’s the conclusion …
"These results suggest that NSAID augmentation could be a potentially
useful strategy to reduce symptom severity in schizophrenia. "
BTW what immune suppressants does your MS friend take ?