Is Anybody Being Prescribed Scopolamine For Depression (Top voted first)

is anyone being prescribed scopolamine off-label for depression? the NIMH is doing clinical trials for same and apparently it works, however my p-doc won't prescribe it for me.

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Yes. I was in the study back in 2006 and have been successfully depression free thanks to scopolamine, taken only for a few days every 3-4 months, with no side effects and no pills everyday! It has totally changed my life.

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Scopolamine was recognized (and used) as an anti-depressant & relaxant around the early-20th century. Like 1900-1920 era. It went by the name "hyoscine". You can find it in Google books from that period. It was also considered the best treatment for people tyring to come-off of morphine addiction. It also was given for alcohol withdrawal (DT's). Apparently, though, it's quite toxic if taken in too-large an amount, and also used by some for very neafrious purposes.

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I had a total knee replacement about 1 month ago. I was prescribed a scopolamine patch for nausea from the pain meds. I have major depression. As I kept changing this patch every 3 days I noticed I had NO depression. It was bizarre and the only med. that had changed (besides pain meds) was this scopolamine patch. I started getting a rash behind my ear, so I discontinued it and within a day my depression came back full on. I started doing some research and found this site. I am amazed how the depression was just GONE. Now, I do not know what to do. I wish I could get it in some other form. any ideas?

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I use the patches for motion sickness. I've been on them for a good while now. I get a skin burn at the patch site also. I started putting them on my arm covered by band-aids. I find they work just as well and the side effects are not as bad. I also find I can get 5 to 6 days out of them.

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Hi everyone! There are some amazing stories here, and I want to help you tell them.

I am a journalist working on a story about ketamine and scopolamine treatments for depression. If you've participated in a study, visited a clinic for intravenous or intranasal ketamine, or self-medicated by obtaining scopolamine patches, etc., I would love to talk to you!

These drugs seem so promising, but it is very frustrating that they are not yet approved or covered by insurance for depression. I want to talk to the people that have experienced the benefits of these treatments firsthand. Your voices would make this story come to life. I will be happy to keep you anonymous if that makes you more comfortable.

{edited for privacy}

Thank you!

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My then 15 year old daughter has suffered from low moods since preschool. She has battled severe depression and anxiety all her life. She cried every day at preschool and elementary school, biting her arm so hard she'd draw blood. She hasn't been able to complete a full year of school since 5th grade and has been on hospital home bound schooling since. She attempted suicide twice, and was sent to a pediatric mental hospital for 6 months. She has been prescribed literally dozens of psychiatric medicines to no avail...antidepressants, antipsychotics, bipolar meds, etc. etc. She had surgery for sinusitis and adenoid removal and was given a scopolamine patch for anti-nausea for recovery. For that week with the patch, she was "normal" as in calm and content. wish there was a way to keep her in this state, but I don't think she could function with the patch 24/7 and I don't know of any psychiatrist who would prescribe it for her. She's 17 now. Maybe when she turns 18 we'll have better luck.

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SAD is not always (solely) caused by a lack of sunlight. There are other seasonal factors (such as reduced ability to exercise) which can exacerbate mood. You cannot expect a SAD lamp to bring back the comprehensive environmental enrichment of a good summer. They work for some but not all.

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Since it is only in clinical trials, this does not necessarily mean that it works for depression. The trials may be showing some positive results, so far, but there is a lot more involved to making sure it is working and safe to be used that way.

As to your doctor not prescribing it, that is entirely up to him. He is not obligated to prescribe something, just because you learned some information on it and want him to do so.

What are you currently taking?

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Scopolamine/­

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The clinical phase 2 trials use Scopolamine intravenously. It seems to be having very good results used this way. The pill form has been discontinued. My Pdoc prescribed the patch for me but the dosage in this form was not enough to help me. I am very curious to see what continues to come out of the trials. I have been trying to get into one.

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I use scopolamine with huge success for the last 6 years after I did the study. You can still get it in pill form but you must go to a compound pharmacy where they can make the capsules for you. I get it from Steven's Pharmacy in Costa Mesa CA and they mail it to me. Call them and ask for the compound pharmacy and they will tell you what your doctir needs to order. If you have more questions post your contact number and I'll call you or email directly. Good luck!

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I am desperate to find help for my 26 yr old son. None of the other meds worked. How are you receiving your treatments - still as a part of the study or are there docs who will prescribe this? You now only have to take every 3mos? Sounds like a miracle! Side effects? Pill form or IV? Thank you

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One of the listed side-effects is drowsiness... this is counter to what I want in lifting my depression. To those of you who have been using this therapy, could you comment on drowsiness or lack of alertness?

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Helene,

Thank you for sharing with us your experience with Scopalamine. I'm really happy that you've found something that works so well for you. I've had depression and OCD for 22+ years...and I'm 43 now. Would you mind to tell with me what the actual dosage amount that your doctor prescribed for you...in capsule form? Also, are there any studies/publications that you and your doctor used as guidance for dosing information? Was this a very complicated process to convince your doctor to write a prescription for this medicine in capsule form? And did you say the only way to purchase Scopalamine is through a compounding pharmacy? I'm thinking that this may be a "hard sell' to my doctor...but I'm willing to try. Any information you may be willing to share would be great! Thank you in advance...J.C.

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Best advice to all of you guys who posted recently... go do the trial at NIH. If you do the study, you doctor will be much more willing to write a prescription for it. It is very hard otherwise to find doctors who will prescribe meds "off label". As far as drowsiness- yes it does make me lightly drowsy and gives me a dry mouth so I take it at bed time and by the morning its out of my system so i wake up with zero side effects and no depression.

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I am so interested in scopolamine for treatment of depression. I am suffering with a bad bout of it now and my twin brother has been suffering for years; even done ect. I live in Hawaii and he lives in Ct. I would just like to find out how i could try scopolamine. To take something that would get rid of depression immediately and keep it gone for months sounds heavenly to me and life changing. Any info you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

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Search for Alive Plus Pharmacy. Best price on the patches I've seen and I've gotten things from them before. I tried to post the link but it went into review, so maybe that's not allowed.

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thank you! I just placed an order, I'm excited to try something different and see if I actually feel alive.

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Hi Craig,

Thanks for asking about my experience with both the Ketamine as well as the scopolamine. I’d be happy to share what I can.

I did indeed have the Ketamine treatment. My shrink is a pretty open minded doctor but truth be told, we only came to trying off label treatments after reviewing the list of SSRis that I had either tried through my previous doctors as well as the several new ones that others that I have tried with him. And I did try a lot (seven or eight SSRis) including many of the newer and supposedly "better" ones with no real reduction in my depression and anxiety. I also did an MAOi patch as well as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (both very expensive and the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation was not paid for by my health insurance) and the next step seemed to be electroshock.

FYI, this depression and bout of anxiety was set off by the death of my perfectly normal and healthy non-drug using sister who died after dated a man who introduced her to methamphetamine and within four months after meeting him she had a methamphetamine psychosis and killed herself. The stress and the pain of her death was almost unbearable and had set me in a rut of depression and anxiety that I had never experienced before. According to my doctors, my brain chemistry, which had been prone to depression during times of stress at different times in my life was perhaps chemically remapped to an intractable depression by the shock and pain that I endured after my sister's death and it's aftermath.

Well, to cut to the chase, my doctor contacted Dr. Randall Espinoza, MD, MPH at UCLA medical center where he has been working with people like me with seemingly intractable depression that has not responded five or more different "normal" treatment strategies and have failed to have any relief with any of them.

I was interviewed by Dr. Espinoza and met the criteria for the treatment.

Within a week of my interview with him, a date was set and I was driven by a friend to UCLA medical center and was given a very low dose of Ketamine delivered over about a half an hour. The closest thing that I could compare the experience to was laughing gas that you could get at your dentist. You are never fully "under" and are questioned frequently by the doctor and nursing staff to make sure that you are articulate enough. I felt a bit shaky about speaking out loud too complex of thoughts or sentences but according to the medical staff everything I said made sense and the Ketamine itself was not unpleasant either during or after the treatment.

I was driven home by my friend and tried to take a nap but it was fitful and sort of like those semi-sleepless nights when you have a cold and have peculiar waking dreams. The rest of the day I was judging my mood and I didn't detect any change in my depression or anxiety, but later that night I was able to go to sleep and have a full night's rest.

But here’s the kicker. Over the next day or so I did notice a profound change in my mood. I am nowhere near as depressed, my anxiety has gone down considerably and I do not ruminate anywhere near as much about the death of my sister. I no longer feel doomed... And that is how I felt. Doomed to be depressed and anxious and "broken" for the rest of my life. And according to Dr. Espinoza, this is normal. Most folks don’t feel too much different for a day or two. But my mood has changed and has stayed pretty upbeat since the treatment about a month and a half ago.

I am not "perfect" (and really, who is?) I do not feel broken or doomed. I have thoughts when I wake up that it will be a good day, that I have things to look forward to. This is a remarkable change from feeling like a crap sandwich for over 3 years. And the weird thing about it is that you start to feel that feeling pretty good is normal and it is what you expect to feel like, whereas before "normal" was feeling horrible, broken, doomed and that was what I was going to feel like forever.

My doctor was willing to prescribe the scopolamine patches which I did try wearing for a week or so after the ketamine treatment, but we both decided that it didn't make any sense, at least at this point, to medicate with both when it was evident that the ketamine was the thing that worked for me. I refilled my patch script and then gave them to another friend who has tried almost everything (including ECT) and has had little relief. He is also without medical insurance and would not have had any chance of being prescribed an off label treatment like scopolamine from any of the free clinics he could potentially go to. He's trying the patches now and will get back to me to let me know how he is doing.

So, the upshot is that the ketamine worked for me. And it worked remarkably well. It has been a month and a half since the treatment and I still feel pretty darn good. If you read up on people who have received benefit from Ketamine, some need to be treated regularly (perhaps monthly) and some have had a single treatment and the effects have stayed with them for a while. I hope I fall into the second category as the treatment was quite expensive ($1,250.00) and my medical insurance would not pay for it. But if I have to, I will find a way to pay for the treatment even if I need them monthly since it actually did work! And that is worth all the money in the world to me.

Anyhow, that is where I am at right now. If I can answer any questions I would be happy to.

And by the way, I want to give all of my best to everyone out there who is struggling. I can not say that my path is the path for you for your own wellness, but it worked for me. I encourage you all to take the steps you need to for your wellbeing. You deserve happiness and health is a basic human right. Try what you need to and see if these treatments (scopolamine and ketamine) might work for you. I have had some success. I hope you do too ;-)

Michael

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Btw, one of the treatments I've become very interested in is this scopolamine and possibly the ketamine. I'm lucky because I think my doctor will prescribe it no problem. He's very liberal in his approach.

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Hi everyone!

Thanks for the tip. I read and heard the same NPR article and know about Riluzole. We (my doctor and I) are considering using Riluzole if the scopolamine treatments are ineffective, but since it would be prescribed "off label" my insurance would not pay for it either and if I remember correctly, although not as expensive as the Ketamine treatment, I believe it is a rather expensive drug. So I am trying to save money and am seeing if the scopalomine works before I take that route.

Last time my doctor and I chatted about a month ago, we both decided to see how long the effectiveness of the Ketamine treatment would work by itself and I withheld using the Scopolamine if/until the Ketamine treatment worked.

About a week ago I had bit of a dip in mood (although not nearly as debilitating as what I was dealing with previous to the Ketamine treatment) which seem to warrant a more treatment so, rather than shell out for the Ketamine infusion, I am on the Scopolamine patches. It's only been two days now and even thought the change isn't nearly as profound as with the ketamine treatment, I do see a leveling off in mood.

FYI, I do recommend that the users of the patch consider buying a product called Tegaderm which is a thin film patch that you can put over the scopalomine patch and not worry about taking showers. Mine would always come off the the shower unless I was super careful. This film covers the entire patch, is clear and ia barely noticeable and you can shower, sweat, work out, scuba dive, whatever, and the patch stays in place. Good stuff to have on hand especially for someone like me who loses the patch a day or two into the three day wearing period.

So, like I said, the scopolamine "seems" to be working, but I state that with a caveat. I am going to see about either upping my dose to two patches (I am 6'4' and over 250lbs) and a former body builder so I am pretty sure that if a single person who weighs 125lbs can handle a single patch, I might be able to get away with two. But before I attempt to alter my dosage, I will check with my doctor, have no doubts about that.

I am still poking around in the dark and so, more or less, is my shrink. But he has an open mind and ALWAYS takes my opinion into consideration. That being stated, I do know the ketamine actually worked for me.

I have heard that ketamine can be purchased overseas in a nasal inhaler, which would dramatically bring down the costs, but to find it and to procure it seems to be rather difficult. I do live in Southern California and the Tijuana pharmacies are not too far away... I might just take a trip down there to have some tacos and inquire about the inhaler and/or the Riluzole prices while I am there.

Anyhow, that is where I am at. I will check in on the board in a week or so. And feel free to ask me any questions. I'd be happy to help, especially fellow sufferers of long term depression.

Warmest regards to you all,

Michael

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