My psychiatrist said that sz sometimes cause working memory and concentration deficits. Do dementia meds fix these?
“Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, such as donepezil, may be useful for Alzheimer disease and dementia in Parkinson’s, DLB, or vascular dementia”
Wikipedia says caffeine is a natural acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and that it helps dementia.
Memantine i think is used in alsheimers
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Working memory, attention and executive problems come under cognitive deficits. This resemble close to ADHD thus ADHD medicines better suited to tackle such issues. These include stimulants like adderall. Also non stimulant medicines like atomoxetine will also help. Also dementia, parkinson medications like memantine, amantadine etc also give some improvement as these also improve dopamine concentrations in prefrontal cortex region in brain which is crucial for cognitive functions.
Caffeine is another stimulant which improve cognitive function.
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Problem is that increasing dopamine will worsen positive symptoms. Antipsychotics block dopamine. Sucks.
Modafinil is useful.
Impact of Modafinil on Prefrontal Executive Function in Schizophrenia
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ajp.2006.163.12.2184
These data demonstrate that modafinil increases dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during the purposeful modulation of motor activity in time by people with schizophrenia. We have shown that where baseline prefrontal function is worse (as measured by letter fluency performance), increasing left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex activation predicts improving cognitive control of motor activity (expanding the response space on a second executive task known to implicate left prefrontal cortex). This model is able to explain most of the variance (54%) in cognitive control that we observed. Clinically, these data suggest that modafinil is a cognitive restorer in some, improving cognitive control in relatively poor performers of these executive tasks.
Nac useful too. It supports dopamine indirectly.
Where in the brain does it increase dopamine?
If in all the brain, it will likely worsen positive symptoms.
blueberries? I swear by them.
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It increases dopamine in all the brain so will worsen psychosis. Side effects agitation, aggressivity, etc
No thanks.
I don’t want more dopamine, I want to improve negative and cognitive symptoms without worsening positive symptoms. Sz is complicated, too many connected symptoms, sucks. Only Abilify improved my negative symptoms but can’t take it anymore. I am waiting for Vraylar, similar to Abilify without its issues.
physical activity 1515151515
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I need to fix my negative symptoms to be able to do physical activity.
Impossible. Its the other way around. Physical activity improve negative symptoms.
I have no energy and no motivation to exercise, when I am able to force myself, I get tired after 3 min max.
“Exercise therapy has been shown to improve positive and negative symptoms, quality of life, cognition, and hippocampal plasticity, and to increase hippocampal volume in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. This article will briefly review the clinical signs, symptoms and proposed etiologies of schizophrenia, and describe the current understanding of exercise programs as an effective treatment in patients with the disease.”
Studies aren’t reality. I am talking from my experience with my own severe negative symptoms.
@rcjj
Keep doing 3 minutes workout.
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Its very rare that I do it but sometimes I walk in the house back and forth many times with a step counter. It sucks though.
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I meant the 3 min was on my bike. I walk more often in the house.
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