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Medication Trial: Dr. Abraham


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Dear Community,

I want to first say that I am not connected with the current medication trial for HPPD or related disorders. However, I am aware that Dr. Abraham is open to talk to anyone willing to come to Boston for a proper evaluation and possible medication trial. In the interest of protecting the most vulnerable of our population, we should be careful when discussing the medication(s) used because this is something that should not be done alone or without proper consultation. It could harm a member of the community and also the future of research.

If you are interested in receiving information on traveling to Boston and would like to meet with Dr. Abraham for consultation and discuss participation in a possible medication trial you can contact me at

Either by Phone: (617) 858-0279 10AM - 10 PM EST. The phone will also ring my house phone and cell. You can leave a message with family with username and phone number. I can receive texts, but please include your username and name to help aid me.

Or by e-mail: hppd@me.com

I am not a screener for the research, but I can be helpful in discussing travel and contacting Dr. Abraham. I do not believe a flood of requests to Dr. Abraham would be helpful, and we should have individuals with HPPD who are serious and able to be part of this first stage to contact Dr. Abraham and I can send along any information at your request and provide you with the best method to contact Dr. Abraham at the time.

Sincerely,

David

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I really wanted to participate on this trial but unfortunatelly travelling to boston is out of question for me.

I would really like to know what is the drug used so I can talk to a local doctor. I think it's unfair that only those who live next to boston or that have the time and resources to travel to it can have the chance of participating.

I can sympathize. I do not qualify. I can only speculate: but it is to reduce risk and is generally poor practice to conduct research without direct contact for the investigator.

If you want to e-mail me to discuss this further I will do so.

If individuals feel it is unfair, please know that the methods are created to help the community as a whole until it can be taken to the next step. I am hoping to help make that process happen much more quickly. I hope my publishing this information was not a mistake, and I will ask it to be reviewed to ensure it does not cause more harm than the good of bringing candidates to the trial.

Sincerely.

David

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Dr. Henry David Abraham has a web site at: www.drabraham.com. Individuals able to travel to Boston for proper evaluation and possible medication can contact him directly on this web site. Before contacting him, my advice based on personal experience and that of others:

Even without the schedule Dr. Abraham has, I know the amount of e-mails and requests on HPPD or related disorders is often overwhelming; these are often detailed e-mails regarding an individual's HPPD history and treatment, and it is a very delicate balance between providing medical advice and answering questions. Dr. Abraham has a regular schedule with his clients, and it is generally poor medical practice for him to answer clinical questions about HPPD without a face-to-face meeting or having prior experience with you.

I have stated that I have learned more from Dr. Abraham's silence than I have from many professor or clinician's babbling: Dr. Abraham routinely will not answer my e-mails, and usually when I review what I wrote I will see that it contains a question requesting a medical opinion on a case, contains a question that I can answer myself, or somehow violates privacy or patient/research ethics simply if he were to respond. The other side is quite frankly, Dr. Abraham is really busy, and he has a busy schedule and/or could be out of the country for three weeks for a conference/etc.

Short Lesson: Do not e-mail Dr. Abraham with general HPPD questions or ask him to do something that you would feel a research might consider unethical. One example would be asking, "How can I experiment on myself and do you think it would be safe?" He can not answer this.

If individuals are interested for us to have a special question and answer section on this message board that can first be fielded by another member and/or me if it does fall into our area of experience or particular expertise and if not then we could send the questions as a group to Dr. Abraham to give him time to consider them and have a response at once... sounds like a great idea to me.

I try to imagine that for every e-mail received, which contains a detailed history of our lives, treatment history, and questions takes at minimum 2 hours to respond to effectively if you do not want to rush an answer. So, receiving two e-mails a day can be 3-4 hours time. Add this to the e-mails from other sources, colleagues, regular patients, consults... I finally understood Dr. Abraham was not being short or curt with me in the past, but simply being effective in responding.

Sincerely,

David

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can you say if the med is a trial med or pharm aproved?

I can wait since i am already on a successful treatment but if it is a trial med that would indicate that it'll be a lot longer before it could be used in general therapy (if the results are successful.)

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not to mention you may get a placebo to make sure the study is found..

imo, unless ur desperate and need a pill for power of suggestion.. dr. A is a fucking moron if he finds anything that would even help hppd at a 1% level..... id be so amazed and dumbfounded, cause trust me... fuckers a moron... he makes money offothers misfprtunes, just cause he quoted the term hppd dosent mean he knows 'anything'.. he will say that to you personally . and if you do talk to him, tell him tyler said hes a joke, a curein 3 years? its been 11 mf.

wait, imo-"in my opinion"

theres not gonna be a magic bullet for this disorderuntill we stop spending oney on bombsand more on the brain, cause in the end, we dont even 100% know how psyches work, how can we cure something we dont understand?

im sure its his payday tho lmao, read his books on teenage drug addiction.... not a open threat cause i really dont care for him, but if i was desperate and found myself turning to DR. acid... you may have more then hppd...

HPPD is as controllable as HIV, as long as you dont miss ur pill(think itss called haart?).. ull get a wierd look and theyll either say your homosexual and you did it to yourself, or like me

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For anyone thinking about going I can relate my experience. I went to Dr. Abraham and tried the medication. It is not a placebo because you take the prescription to a pharmacy of your choice and have it filled. Unless you are one who thinks the whole world is conspiring to keep you sick this should eliminate any fears about that (in which case I really don't have an answer for you). I didn't feel the medication worked for me, but the trip was worth it because I finally had an official diagnosis. Dr. Abraham is extremely intelligent and kind and, most of all, he doesn't think we are all making this up to get attention (which has been my experience with 99 percent of the medical community). Having a diagnosis means that your own doctor can no longer stare off into space the minute you start talking about hppd because if he does he'll be ignoring a serious medical condition. Of course, without a diagnosis, most of our doctors just pretend hppd doesn't exist. I am not wealthy and I had to save up for the trek to Boston, but it was worth every cent just to be in a room with someone who took me seriously and treated me like the professional, intelligent adult that I am. However, the trip was also very traumatic as I was forced to live and talk about my hppd. Also, even though I did not have high hopes for the medication, it was quite heartbreaking when it did not relieve my symptoms.

If you think you might be interested in going I would suggest researching Dr. Abraham and deciding whether or not you feel like he can help you. In my opinion someone who was a co-recipient of a Nobel Prize is far from being a self-serving quack. My personal experience with him has only furthered this perception. Furthermore, the medical community at large ignores our condition and I am thankful for anyone who cares or is interested in it enough to actually take it seriously. This of course, is only my opinion.

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Putting "IMO" doesn't give you free reign to say whatever you want.

Either put up a real, reasoned argument as to why you don't think people should trust Dr Abraham or stop posting. Paranoid ramblings don't help anyone.

You seem to be upset that he charges money... have you seen how much it costs to become a doctor? I guess architects, pilots and the like should also give you a free ride?

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I was thinking about removing that message but let it be...i am thinking about Lucid is angry with Dr. Abraham or the med. industry and that Abraham "represents" that industry. Just trying to rationalize about what you are trying to say because really, this guy and David are the only people who dedicated their career to our cause. No matter what i do not care about the reason why they do it as long as something good comes out of it.

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Mutts,

Thank you for your post.

Perhaps I’ll try to see Dr Abraham too. Having additional diagnosis helps, even if there is no quick solution. Very much relate to frustration with 99% of doctors.

I am one of those few with HPPD symptomology who has never tried recreational drugs. Yea – there are actually some out there (kind of like the 40 year old virgin, lol). But my condition was directly caused from toxic poisoning and the experience should yield useful help for some.

Really appreciated Dr Abraham’s comment, "Developing HPPD without ever tripping on acid can also happen, but in my experience this is quite rare, and suggestive of another disorder in the nervous system that needs medical attention."

 

Lucid,

if he finds anything that would even help hppd at a 1% level

There are plenty of people that get better than 1% relief from all sorts of effort. The real clincher is to gain a lot more so life is easier.

People have to keep trying. And they have to change their lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place.

I’ve worked very hard for 4 years and have made perhaps 75% recovery. And I am 50 years old – an age when the body doesn’t heal quickly anymore. So many visiting this forum should hold on to hope. Even if the medical community isn’t up to par with this

 

In my opinion, HPPD and its ilk are forms of mild brain injury. It may not feel mild. But treating it medically as such can yield results. Not just medications, but the whole gambit of retraining the brain can help.

There are lots of possibilities…

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ahh christ why do i even post things hehe.

" Putting "IMO" doesn't give you free reign to say whatever you want."

yes it does, it means that those are my feeling's and shouldent be taken as the word of god..

"Either put up a real, reasoned argument as to why you don't think people should trust Dr Abraham or stop posting. Paranoid ramblings don't help anyone."

no thx, ive been doing that for 10 years, at this point id rather talk shit.

"You seem to be upset that he charges money... have you seen how much it costs to become a doctor? I guess architects, pilots and the like should also give you a free ride?"

no im upset cause hes made a carrier off anti-drug bs, for over 40 years hes barley has done a damn thing for it, maybe comfort the desperate.. my true hard feelings towards him came from a number of misdiagnosis's he gives people for HPPD, when hes never even done a psychedelic drug. its like trying to do heart surgery without every seeing a heart.. he learned to corner a market noone else would touch..

_______________________________

Lucid,

if he finds anything that would even help hppd at a 1% level

There are plenty of people that get better than 1% relief from all sorts of effort. The real clincher is to gain a lot more so life is easier.

People have to keep trying. And they have to change their lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place.

I’ve worked very hard for 4 years and have made perhaps 75% recovery. And I am 50 years old – an age when the body doesn’t heal quickly anymore. So many visiting this forum should hold on to hope. Even if the medical community isn’t up to par with this

i ment him personally. many of us have recovered a great deal mentally, my point is his motivation will always be money motivated... dr's dont write anti-drug books etc for the hell of it.. ive been reading everything he has put out with one of his partners L', lerner? i agree with the other guy alot but DR. A dosent seem to have any motivation except $.. hes givin me no other reason to beleive other wise..

_____________

in the end im sry about the bs i spit the last couple days, relapsed hardcore for the holiday weekend and just sobered up so feel a bit bad about it.. but to be blunt yet, IN MY OPINION hes full of shit. ive been stateing that on HPPD community boards since 1999 for fuck sake.:blink: its like saying i cant hate the president cause the mass population likes him.. give me a break. IMO means just that.

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A forum is a controlled area.... you do not have free reign over what you say here. That is why we have moderators. We are pretty relaxed on what is posted (we also have hppd, you know, and don't need the stress) but once your posts start to look like being antagonistic, they will be gone... just read your posts before hitting the button, see if they will be taken the right way. I don't know anything about the Dr in question, so have no problem with people airing negative views... but do it in the right way

You seem to demand negative attention, i'm not interested in that type of contribution.

Why say "I prefer to talk shit" and then actually go on to give a fairly reasoned reply? Just give the reply, simple.

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man, i dont even know who you are and been workin with dk since 1999... ban me for all i care(just as meth lab, one of the first people to bring hppd to others attention and the only mod on stormloader got banned cause he was on a tweak binge and said the wrong things outta his hat.. last time i talked to him he had the nerve to say i became soft , lol). freedom of speech i like more then being censored.. do what you must. . as i said, i was on a binge a relapse, i had been off drugs for awhile and took it to far.. when i came back to this board my intention was not to get into one argument just common help for people, but the drugs got the best of me and now once again im at war with you people.

ive sobered up now and want no part of this debate, and neraly this website

my real reason for dislikeing dr a?

i spent YEARS debateing with the pro-psychedelic communitys on the web about the existance of hppd and his writtings and diagnosis of people who obviously didnt have it made us ALL look like fakers...now that the pro psychedelic community is on our side for the most part threw years of myself and many other's banging our heads against their blank minds(and we are pro-psychedelic as well) just kinda makes the name sound worst then satan to christians to me.

go ahead man, moderate me... i helped create this community and have never heard of you.ive contributed more to this community then you care to realize or even know.

i was a mod myself on hppdonline...i was one of the only ones who helped bring people from stormloader and design the originol hppdonline.. that dosent give me the right to start a war, but drugs are a bitch, and i choosed the wrong ones to relapse on... no more excuse's.. i fucked up, i realize this.

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 Moderator he's just saying his opinion and even if it's not what we wanted to hear, a person must have his freedom of speech. The moderators are there to stop those who disobey rules, like offending people and flooding, not who wants to give his opinion.

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no one has said anything about banning, so let's calm that talk down. have the posts been removed?... no. It seemed to me the posts were not just giving an opinion, but were written to push people's button... I just asked for a more controlled opinion to be given so that people could better understand his point of view.

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Just a report as to how the trial was...

I sat in front of Dr. A and for the first time in 14 years someone told me I have HPPD. That in itself was well worth the trip. I now don't have to convince doctors and psychologists that I have some strange disorder that none of them have ever heard of. Obviously I can't say the name of the drug that I was given but I can tell you this; the drug was never meant as a cure all. It was more of a spot treatment and its half life was less then a couple of hours and has the potential to be pretty harsh on the liver. This trial was obviously about defining mechanisms of HPPD and I was happy to be a part of it even though I was in the minority of people who the drug didn't help.

Dr. A is a brilliant man, but he is a man nonetheless. I have been suffering some pretty heavy depression, frustration,anxiety and insomnia for the last several months, which the depression and frustration was very new to me. After talking with him, I was a bit surprised at his suggestions. He first told me that he didn't have any firm evidence that SSRIs are contraindicated in HPPD, and if clinically needed, he would treat many folks with them without difficulty. Obviously we are all different, but I know from my experience that effexor made me think I was dying and I was a bit surprised that he was against, or unaware of, what I may have mistakingly thought was a staple of HPPD lore. He then made the suggestion that I get on a daily low dose of Klonopin and refuted any ideas of developing addiction or withdrawals from the drug, which knowing of a lot of users experiences here is pretty difficult pill to swallow (pun intended). I was very surprised but I do understand that when you put someone up on a pedestal as I had with him that finding out he isn't perfect is all the more disheartening.

Above all, it was a great experience and he was extremely knowledgeable and I suggest doing the trial if only to finally get a diagnosis and see the awesome Boston area. Me and my wife spent 6 days there and it was by far the best vacation I have had in awhile. I was able to get him to talk to my psychologist and finally say I have HPPD and that I need CBT over SSRI for my mild depression.

Please believe me when I say that I am not bashing Dr. A. I thought that the expense was so well worth it to talk to the man. I just wanted to share my experience and thoughts.

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im about to be in CBT myself btw-not for depression tho.. anxiety.

cause none of the prescribed legal meds worked lol, only the illegal ones.

and my pancreas cant handle them anymore, nor my friends and family hehe.

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You mean your liver?

Thanks a lot for your report Donkey. Your reaction is more normal than you think, though. I've heard ~10 reports of people who went to Dr.A and it's all the same. The medicine didn't work, but they were happy to talk to someone who understood them etc. I'm just waiting a positive report of that secret remedy.

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Just a report as to how the trial was...

I sat in front of Dr. A and for the first time in 14 years someone told me I have HPPD. That in itself was well worth the trip. I now don't have to convince doctors and psychologists that I have some strange disorder that none of them have ever heard of. Obviously I can't say the name of the drug that I was given but I can tell you this; the drug was never meant as a cure all. It was more of a spot treatment and its half life was less then a couple of hours and has the potential to be pretty harsh on the liver. This trial was obviously about defining mechanisms of HPPD and I was happy to be a part of it even though I was in the minority of people who the drug didn't help.

Dr. A is a brilliant man, but he is a man nonetheless. I have been suffering some pretty heavy depression, frustration,anxiety and insomnia for the last several months, which the depression and frustration was very new to me. After talking with him, I was a bit surprised at his suggestions. He first told me that he didn't have any firm evidence that SSRIs are contraindicated in HPPD, and if clinically needed, he would treat many folks with them without difficulty. Obviously we are all different, but I know from my experience that effexor made me think I was dying and I was a bit surprised that he was against, or unaware of, what I may have mistakingly thought was a staple of HPPD lore. He then made the suggestion that I get on a daily low dose of Klonopin and refuted any ideas of developing addiction or withdrawals from the drug, which knowing of a lot of users experiences here is pretty difficult pill to swallow (pun intended). I was very surprised but I do understand that when you put someone up on a pedestal as I had with him that finding out he isn't perfect is all the more disheartening.

Above all, it was a great experience and he was extremely knowledgeable and I suggest doing the trial if only to finally get a diagnosis and see the awesome Boston area. Me and my wife spent 6 days there and it was by far the best vacation I have had in awhile. I was able to get him to talk to my psychologist and finally say I have HPPD and that I need CBT over SSRI for my mild depression.

Please believe me when I say that I am not bashing Dr. A. I thought that the expense was so well worth it to talk to the man. I just wanted to share my experience and thoughts.

He then made the suggestion that I get on a daily low dose of Klonopin and refuted any ideas of developing addiction or withdrawals from the drug ... pretty difficult pill to swallow…

The key to preventing addiction and withdrawal problems IS low dose as he stated.

To illustrate: if you take hormones, the body compensates by reducing its own production … if you take a lot, the organs involved shut down … Take weight lifters who consume 50-100 times the normal production of androgen/testosterone, their testicles can literally atrophy if they keep it up.

This is true with neurotransmitter manipulation. The brain adjusts and discontinuance can make symptoms worse than before ever starting.

IMO, use medications like training-wheels on a bicycle. They are to help provide stability while you are learning. Eventually, they are just not needed. This is a problem with societal use of Prozac and other SSRIs. People take them but don’t follow through with CBT or whatever it takes to deal with their problems non-chemically.

Another example: I know chronic pain suffers who take oxycodone and hydrocodone for over a decade. By carefully matching doses according to their current pain level, often cutting pills into ¼ and using titration (and never touching time-released versions), they are not addicted and the meds are very effective at even lower doses than they started with.

Back to Klonopin – while used for many things, this is an anti-seizure med. Brain injuries are often treated with anti-seizure meds. Again IMO, HPPD is a mild brain injury.

So, have to agree with the doctor here. (low dose meds to calm malfunctioning activity) What was the dose he suggested?

 

He first told me that he didn't have any firm evidence that SSRIs are contraindicated in HPPD, and if clinically needed, he would treat many folks with them without difficulty.

Again, technically he is correct – you just can’t say nobody with HPPD will benefit. Technicalities and probabilities differ. Like yourself (and general HPPD community comments), serotonin is NOT my friend. Low doses are tolerable (though my vision is worse) but stuff like Effexor – after just 8 days was told to stop and it took months to recover (a bad bad setback).

Doctors generally work with hard, established patterns. Something difficult with our kind of problems.

 

I have been suffering some pretty heavy depression, frustration,anxiety and insomnia for the last several months, which the depression and frustration was very new to me

I would be interested to hear what meds (and their response) that you have tried.

Have you tried anything to increases dopamine levels?

 

Thank you very much for your post and glad, as an added bonus, you and your wife enjoyed the time there. [Did you stay at the Custom House overlooking Quincy market? It is great if you can do so.]

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