Laura Liget wrote


>You are similarly out of luck if you need a decongestant or
antihistamine.

>Luckily I have found one cough syrup and one antihistamine I can take.
(My PD

>meds are Sinemet, Eldepryl, Requip, Tasmar & Nortryptiline.) The cough
syrup

>is Naldecon Senior DX  (Guaifenesin & Dextromethorphan hydrobromide)


and Carol Mcleod:

>

>Keith , there is an alternative to cough syrups called Guaifenesin ,
It

>it a pill and you need a prescription for it .

>I use it  , it thins out mucus so it can be drained out  . I was told

>there is no interaction with other drugs and

>I have experienced none so far myself . I also use Zyrtec for allergy

>(prescription) and it has worked well with

>no P.D. drug interaction .


and Athur Hirsch:


>Here is my understanding: there are two types of mono-amine oxidase

>inhibitors (MOA-I), type A and type B.  Type A interacts with the

>medications in the patent medicines such as Day-Quil and Sudafed.  Type
B

>does not.


>Eldepryl (Selegiline) is a selective MOA-I, type B only, when taken in

>small quantities.  Ten mg per day is considered a small quantity.  In

>larger quantities, it loses its selective property and becomes both A
and

>B.  Therefore, it may become dangerous, so the warning is necessary.


Listmembers,

In Holland one does not need a prescription to buy a cough syrop or pills
wich has the same ingredient as Guaifenesin viz, dextrometorphan, which
is a glutamate antagonist.The leaflet with the instructions for use, says
however it should not te be used in combination with a MAO inhibitor.


Dextrometorphan has replaced codeine, which did lead to abuse. Some
searching in usenet alt. drugs learned me that among for-fun-drug-users
dextrometophan is known.

Warning is indeed necessary. In higher doses it is certainly not
harmless, so this is not to advise to start using it. But I think the
whole attention for anti-glutamates is interesting, because if it leads
to a regular med against PD, it will attack PD in a rather different way
as dopamine does or dopamine agonists or meds who inhibit the
deconstruction of dopamine


In Holland one does not need a prescription to buy a cough syrop or pills
wich has the same ingredient as Guaifenesin viz, dextrometorphan, which
is a glutamate antagonist.The leaflet with the instructions for use, says
however it should not te be used in combination with a MAO inhibitor.

I wrote recently something about the importance that anti-glutamates
might have for PWP's.The summary  of an article from CNS drugs from aptil
1998 is added to this mail for people who are interested in more
background

An old medicine for PD, which recently was mentioned to be have a pos.
effect on dopamine-induced dyskinesia, amantadine, has that effect
because it is(next to an anti virus med)an antiglutamate, though a weak
one.

I have done some additional searching on the net and learned that
researchers of the university of Tuebingen (Germany) did already develope
another anti-glutamate Memantine, which is so they expect effective as an
anti-parkinson med. and an anti-craving med for alcohol-- and other
addictivs. People who are interested, might look around themselves on the
site of Tuebingen

<bigger>They have most of their texts in German and in English.

http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/bzn/index-e.html

</bigger>


CNS drugs juni 1998

Summary

GLUTAMATE ANTAGONISTS FOR  PARKINSON'S DISEASE


Rationale for Use and Therapeutic Implications

Alison J Cooper,Camille B Carrol and Ian J. Mitchell.

Parkinson's disease results from degeneration of dopaminergic neurons
within the substantia nigra. The treatment of the disease was
revolutionised by the introduction of dopamine replacement tharapy.
However, it has become increasingly clear that prolonged administration
of  dopamine agonists results in the onset of a spectrum  serious
adversive effects, including dyskinesias. Accordingly, there is great
interest in alternative strategies for the treatment of this condition.
It is now realised that the loss of nigral dopamine cells and subsequent
lowering of striatal dopamine levels causes a chain of pathofysiological
events within the basal ganglia. One of the most prominent of these
events is an elevation in the level of glutamate-mediated transmission
within the striatum and the output structures of the the basal ganglia.


A range of glutamate antagonists has been shown to alleviate symptoms in
animal models of Parkinson's disease. Antagonists of both the
N-methyl-D-aspertate (NMDA) and the
a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPDA)  subtypes
of the glutamate receptor result in an improvement in motor behaviour on
experimental animal models. However,  systematic administration of NMDA
antagonists is also associated with several adverse effects, the most
common being ataxia, sedation and cognitive impairments. These problems
can potentially be overcome by the use of antagonists that are selective
for the subtypes of NMDA receptors, which are preferentially expressed in
the critical parts of the pathophysiological circuitry.


Glutmate antagonists are also known to have strong neuroprotective
effects. Consequently, administration of glutamate antagonists  may slow
the loss od nigral dopaminergic neurons and thus slow  the progression of
Parkinson's disease


Regards Ida



--------------------------------------------------------------

Vriendelijke Groeten / Kind regards,


Ida Kamphuis                            mailto: [log in to unmask]