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Hi,
This is my first mailing to the PARKINSN  group.

I am 51 years old and live in Lincolnshire (near Boston) in England and have
been suffering from PD for the past nine years although I was mistakenly
diagnosed with M.E. for all that time!

I have been taking Amantadine for the past three months, since finally being
diagnosed in March as hosting PD in my brain.

At first I took 100mg twice a day (7 am and 1 p.m.) combined with an
anticholinergic, Benhexol, 2mg 3 times daily. I found that I was felt better
reducing the Benhexol to 1 mg three times a day at four hourly intervals. As I
suffered severe depression, the second opinion I sought on my GP's advice
recommended that I stop the Benhexol and started me on an Amitriptyline working
slowly up to 150 mg before bed at night. I must admit that this has altered my
life. I now sleep through the night for the first time in years and the
anticholinergic attributes of the Amitriptyline seem to last throughout the
next day and balance the Dopaminergic enhancing effects of the Amantadine.

My worries are that the effects of the Amantadine are supposedly short lived
(in terms of months) and the brain becomes habituated. Is this true? Does
increasing the dosage beyond 300mg a day ineffectual? I have found that I am
more easily confused  and less able to figure things out mentally .... is this
a side effect of Amantadine or a symptom of PD? Should I worry?

I have many other questions that I would like to ask but don't want to bother
all you good people with FAQ's, covering old ground yet again. Is there a good
WWW site that can deal with them; although I'd rather speak to PWP who have
been there, read the book, seen the movie and can give an opinion based on
experience ............. Regards to all and more power to PWP....

Jon Blakeman-Shead