Morning everyone! I’m on a journey of discovery; neuro has finally put me on medication. Amantadine to start with, and I was wondering if anyone else is familiar with it, what it’s supposed to do, what it actually does etc. It appears to be something they use to treat Parkinsons, but useful for MS fatigue as well. Annoyingly, the neuro wanted to put me on something different but until I’ve had two relapses within a year, he can’t - NICE guidelines don’t allow it, and I’m really not up for another one anyway! What I’m really asking is, will Amantadine stop the blurryness in my brain? My head’s a shed right now, can’t remember stuff or concentrate properly, and I’m hating it!
Hi Fracastorius,
Slightly confused by what your neuro has said, as I don’t think any drug to treat symptoms has eligibility criteria regarding how frequently you must relapse. So I can only assume he was talking about one of the disease modifying drugs (DMDs), and eligibility for those is usually two relapses in two years - not one. So only half as frequent as he was saying. If you do think you’ve already had two relapses in two years, then I suggest you query it. But they always have the get-out that it has to be “clinically significant” relapses. “Clinically significant” isn’t defined. Not all consultants would consider a relapse that wasn’t disabling to be “clinically significant”.
Drugs to treat symptoms - like Amantadine - are in no way interchangeable with DMDs - they don’t have the same objectives. So when you say he wanted to put you on “something different”, I asume that would have been as well as the Amantadine, not instead of.
I’ve no experience of Amantadine for fatigue - not even been offered it. And won’t be now, as it has an adverse interaction with one of my other drugs.
But judging by the posts on this forum, it is, like most drugs, something that works for some, but isn’t guaranteed. The only way to find out is to try, and see what happens. I hope it works well for you.
Tina
Sorry Anitra, think I got a bit confused and have put my thoughts across very badly indeed! The amantadine is just to treat one of the symptoms, fatigue. I’m still not on any DMDs as we have only one relapse to go on, which was at the beginning of this year. I’m still not sure when ‘having a bad day’ becomes ‘a relapse’… but I’ve had a few Bad Days, and if I have another Thing Which Counts As A Relapse, I will then, I’m told, be eligible to start - either on beta-interferon or Tysabri. I am querying all this with the neuro, who seems to be as frustrated as I am that he can’t put me on the serious stuff until I’ve had another relapse… two steps forward and one back, eh? Ah well… I’m on their radar I suppose.