Did you lack the energy to do those or simply the mood part? If its just the mood part then forcing yourself to do is the best strategy to fight negative symptoms. If lack energy too then check if you have deficiencies like vitamin d, b12, thyroid hormones, heart circulation problems etc.
Personally I find thiamine (vitamin b1) very useful for motivation, mood etc. It helps to concentrate on a task for prolonged periods. Zinc helps somewhat in the anhedonia part but some times it can give bad moods too.
For me I feel low in energy when my vitamin D and thyroid hormone level is low. Both these helps in dopamine function indirectly. Vitamin D helps to protect dopamine neurons.
Same way tyrosine in thyroid hormone is needed for dopamine production.
I think the reason that psychiatrists try Wellbutrin for sz negative symptoms is because it raises dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. I will ask my Dr about Effexor but pretty sure he wonât prescribe as I donât have depression and it doesnât affect dopamine, just serotonin/norepinephrine.
The only thing that worked for me was a partial dopamine agonist, Abilify.
Thiamine tried? In multivitamin thiamine level is very low and body hardly absorbs it. I am taking thiamine hcl 100 mg daily. I can feel a real reduction in mood and cognitive function especially memory when I skip it.
A 28-year-old woman was admitted in emergency room 45 days after childbirth with subacute onset of diplopia, horizontal nystagmus and vertigo. She had a medical past of recurrent vomiting during pregnancy, and an esophagectomy with partial gastrectomy due to idiopathic achalasia three years before presentation. Her brain MRI was unremarkable. She was evaluated by otorhinolaryngology team and was discharged with diagnosis of bilateral vestibular neuritis. After one week, she returned with behavioral change. Her neurologic examination revealed restricted extraocular motility to lateral gaze, vertical nystagmus, Babinski sign and dysarthria. Cognitive deficits appeared days before admission and she quickly became catatonic. Initial laboratory tests were normal. Brain MRI showed increased signal in FLAIR sequence involving mammillary bodies, periaqueductal area, and periventricular region of the third ventricle. A clinical suspicion of thiamine deficiency was considered, treatment with parenteral thiamine was started, and rapidly improvement in catatonia and ocular motility was seen. Although the classic neurologic manifestation of thiamine deficiency is Wernicke encephalopathy triad, patients may not fulfill the classic phenotype of ocular dysmotility, gait ataxia, and mental status changes in early presentations of the disease. Additionally, MRI may not be abnormal and can change over the course of disease. The classic signs of catatonia, which were lush in this case report, may be found in neurologic metabolic disorders, but is not described as a classic finding in thiamine deficiency. In this case report, in addition to catatonia as an atypical manifestation, there was resolution of this phenotype after thiamine replacement.
Yes catatonia have many causes. Low dopamine too can cause catatonia. This is why strong APs contradicted if have have catatonia. There is something called NMS catatonia which is caused by AP use when already have catatonic tendency.
For me stronger antipsychotics reduced my catatonia. I get catatonia on weaker meds, lower doses and when unmedicated. I guess I am lucky as antipsychotics also stopped my OCD and violent behavior.
It depends on dopamine level in brain in certain regions. Some users on AP and not have any negative symptom at all. Reason is they have uniform dopamine levels in all regions and AP reduced the excess dopamine level. But in some some regions more and some region low or normal. APs canât selectively reduce dopamine so some regions dopamine levels get too low and create issues like negative symptoms and even parkinson like symptoms, catatonia etc.
My psychiatrist told me partial dopamine agonists normalize dopamine in all the brain. Boosting dopamine where its low and blocking it where its high. I think thats why Abilify reduced my negative symptoms by 40%.