I don't. What is an alpha antagonist?
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Alpha agonists are non-stimulant drugs and in this case, mostly refer to clonidine and guanfacine. They can be used off-label to treat some of the symptoms of ADHD. Most frequently, they're used for RSD as they're the only medication that is said to help it (about 1/3 of the population will have symptom reduction with either one drug or the other - and the last 1/3 won't see a reduction in RSD symptoms at all). It also can introduce a greater sense of calm and make it easier to sleep. These medications can be used together with stimulants. I typically seen them most commonly prescribed by ADHD specialists who know more about the variety of treatment paths for ADHD, less commonly by GPs.
Having recently been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult I didn't know what RSD was and had to look it up. Oh goodie another ADHD related problem it looks like I probably have, I'll have to mention this at my next session and see what they say. Thanks for the heads up.
Best of luck, fellow neurodivergent.
To add and clarify: at least in the case of guanfacine - originally created as a blood pressure medication, it is however approved by the FDA for use as an ADHD medication. "Off-label" suggests otherwise to me so I wanted to mention that
Thanks! I was just about to ask what the hell an alpha agonist was.
For others like myself. Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is when you experience severe emotional pain because of a failure or feeling rejected. This condition is linked to ADHD and experts suspect it happens due to differences in brain structure.
Like gabapentin? I was on them for years, in theory to help with really bad restless legs (keeps me up all night). My normal ADHD meds are 60mg Equasym XR + 20mg methylphenidate SR.
The gabapentin never helped, even up to relatively high doses. I'm seriously suspicious that the long and short term side effects are under emphasised, especially for long term use. Titrating up felt bad, but coming off them was absolutely awful, probably one of the worse experiences I've had with medication. I don't normally get anxiety but it skyrocketed, and I was nauseous and groggy for weeks, even titrating really slow. Anxiety is still worse months later, and while I don't entirely trust my judgement on this, I do wonder if it's maybe had longer effect on me than is explained by just the half life.
Still pissed that my neurologist just dropped them on me and never really followed up!
Given the lack of info on official side effects, I do wonder if the methylphenidate did somehow interact with the gabapentin to make the whole thing worse, but that's just a conspiracy theory on my part.