Milnacipran - completely stopping my brain fog

[hurray]

Well, I'm not the person you were replying to, I was just browsing the forum and came across this, but I just wanted to say that I also think you should be very cautious when taking a psychiatric medication like Milnacipran. It's great that it helps you, but many things have helped people with POIS, which means they are probably just masking different symptoms and not attacking the cause, since said cause is still unknown. I suppose many medications that affect brain function and mood could make people with POIS feel better, that's what they're supposed to do in general, but they could have serious effects in the long run. Just saying you should maybe be cautious. I hope you won't be offended by this, it's your choice after all, but I personally think sex isn't that important as to take random psychiatric medications so we can have it, no matter what doctors think or say (we all know how effortlessly some of them prescribe meds, and none of them knows the slightest thing for sure about POIS yet). Best of luck to you, take care!

Thank you for your thoughtful contribution, IronFeather.

At this point, it seems likely that there are many different types of POIS, as Quantum's comprehensive thread below discusses:
https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2338.0

It's entirely possible that there are many different "causes" of POIS, with O being the initial trigger which links all the different causes/symptoms. So I'd say that you CAN in theory directly address the cause of 1 or more types of POIS. And most common diseases have treatments that work for some patients and not for others, you would expect the same to be true for POIS.

I'm not encouraging anyone to take risks with their health. Quantum's earlier reply to you describes the issues involved with risk very well, I can't think of anything to add to that.

Best of luck to you too 

[taurusthree]

hurray, once again, congrats on your treatment!

"There are several drugs which boost norepinephrine, so why is milnacipran any different?"

Well, I have already tried several NRIs:

atomoxetine (Strattera) - uncomfortable feeling during O, brain fog remained
buproprion - made me feel jittery, brain fog remained
ritalin - gave me energy and focus before quickly building up tolerance, did not stop the brain fog
duloxetine - felt like bad flu, could not drive or work, withdrawal symptoms, too sick to accurately gauge brain fog
venlafaxine - felt like bad flu, could not drive or work, bad withdrawal symptoms, too sick to accurately gauge brain fog

The effects of duloxetine and venlafaxine (both SNRIs) were interesting. They made me feel terrible - there was no way that I could take them every day. But my POIS felt a bit different while I was on both drugs.

I read that duloxetine and venlafaxine don't have a powerful effect on norepinephrine at low doses. There was only a substantial norepinephrine reuptake inhibition effect at high doses.

Venlafaxine has potency at serotonin transporters which is about 30-fold greater than that at norepinephrine transporters while milnacipran has a similar potency at each transporter. Thus, at low doses, venlafaxine acts essentially as a SSRI, with significant noradrenergic activity only occurring at higher doses.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2819762/

Trying milnacipran, I was surprised  to find that a low one-off dose was sufficient to completely stop the POIS brain fog that I have been accustomed to for so many years. I attributed this to the powerful effect that milnacipran has on norepinephrine reuptake inhibition.

Milnacipran also has multiple reports that it cured the brain fog of fibromyalgia sufferers.

I was planning to get Atomoxetine for my ADD. I'm curious - why didn't Atomoxetine help you. After all it is considered a pure NRI.

[hurray]

hurray, once again, congrats on your treatment!

"There are several drugs which boost norepinephrine, so why is milnacipran any different?"

Well, I have already tried several NRIs:

atomoxetine (Strattera) - uncomfortable feeling during O, brain fog remained
buproprion - made me feel jittery, brain fog remained
ritalin - gave me energy and focus before quickly building up tolerance, did not stop the brain fog
duloxetine - felt like bad flu, could not drive or work, withdrawal symptoms, too sick to accurately gauge brain fog
venlafaxine - felt like bad flu, could not drive or work, bad withdrawal symptoms, too sick to accurately gauge brain fog

The effects of duloxetine and venlafaxine (both SNRIs) were interesting. They made me feel terrible - there was no way that I could take them every day. But my POIS felt a bit different while I was on both drugs.

I read that duloxetine and venlafaxine don't have a powerful effect on norepinephrine at low doses. There was only a substantial norepinephrine reuptake inhibition effect at high doses.

Venlafaxine has potency at serotonin transporters which is about 30-fold greater than that at norepinephrine transporters while milnacipran has a similar potency at each transporter. Thus, at low doses, venlafaxine acts essentially as a SSRI, with significant noradrenergic activity only occurring at higher doses.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2819762/

Trying milnacipran, I was surprised  to find that a low one-off dose was sufficient to completely stop the POIS brain fog that I have been accustomed to for so many years. I attributed this to the powerful effect that milnacipran has on norepinephrine reuptake inhibition.

Milnacipran also has multiple reports that it cured the brain fog of fibromyalgia sufferers.

I was planning to get Atomoxetine for my ADD. I'm curious - why didn't Atomoxetine help you. After all it is considered a pure NRI.

That's a great question taurusthree. I try not to use pharmalogical jargon in my posts here, but my gut feeling is that is that milnacipran's NRI mechanism is somehow different from the other NRI/SNRI drugs that I have tried in the past.

I would not be surprised if in the future, another poiscenter.com member discovered an NRI/SNRI drug that worked for them as milnacipran works for me. I have found something that works for me, so I'm not really motivated to keep looking for new solutions. I'm not willing to deliberately ruin 3-4 days of my life to check to see if a new POIS drug candidate is effective

[demografx]

I'm not willing to deliberately ruin 3-4 days of my life to check to see if a new POIS drug candidate is effective

Hi hurray,

That’s exactly how I feel when a new, attractive possibility comes up!