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From: dgreen@squid (Dan R. Greening)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Ritalin, AIDS Fatigue, and Helper T Counts.
Message-ID: <27802@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 5 Oct 89 19:59:37 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Lines: 46
Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu
Archive-number: 1312

I have a friend who has been having emotional problems connected with
his AIDS diagnosis and his family.  He recently saw a psychiatrist to sort
out some of the problems.  To deal with his chronic fatigue, the psychiatrist
prescribed Ritalin.  

My friend, when diagnosed with AIDS, had a helper T count of 180.  After months
on AZT, his helper T count stabilized at 600.  After starting the Ritalin
therapy, his helper T count jumped up to 750, where it has remained for the
last month.

My friend claims to feel much less tired, and is functioning better.  He now
works a 9 to 5 job.  I'm not sure the Ritalin helped him with the 
psychological problems, but it appears to have helped with some physical 
problems associated with AIDS.

Much to the dismay of my friend's psychiatrist, he has experimented with 
the dosage level on his own (with the help of a Physician's Desk Reference, 
I should add).  He is taking a slightly higher dosage than his psychiatrist 
recommended.  I want to point out that my friend was very careful about 
adjusting the dosage, and kept within the PDR recommended dosage levels.

He has had problems obtaining Ritalin, because it is not an approved drug for
AIDS and because it is on the controlled substance list (I believe it is a
member of the amphetamine family).  He contacted a sales representative for
Ciba-Geigy to ask them what could be done about getting Ritalin on the
approved substance list for AIDS.  The representative told him that Ciba-Geigy
was not willing to invest research energy in Ritalin because the patent had
expired, and much of the profits that would accrue from the new application 
would go to generic manufacturers.  The approval time for new applications 
has been on the order of 6 years, he said.  (Yes, I know this isn't true
for many AIDS drugs...but that's what he said).

The representative said that if a physician published research on 
Ritalin showing it to be effective in raising T cell counts, that would 
improve the willingness of other physicians to prescribe.

The evidence for Ritalin is extremely anecdotal.  I've only heard of it
being used in a couple of cases.  However, since my friend has had good 
experiences with it, I thought it would be appropriate to report them.

Play safe.

-- 

Dan Greening  dgreen@cs.ucla.edu  NY 914-789-7620 | 308 Westwood Plaza, Box 117
       	                          CA 213-825-2266 | Los Angeles, CA 90024-1647