Patient (39, F), presented suffering from anxiety disorder(s), insomnia and complete loss of appetite. Patient admitted to previous alcohol and drug abuse (a "wild overindulgenge") in younger teen years, and had been prescribed benzos for 20 yrs.
Psychopharmocologist prescribed Mirtazepine, a piperazino-apepine compound for the above described. Patient reported script working well at first, followed by subsequent ineffective flatline tolerance.
Scutellaria laterfloria (Mad Dog Scullcap) aerial foliage was sourced from wild wetland area along Red River Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi areas June-August 2020 while plants were in bloom. Plant material was blanched, chopped, dried, sealed, stored approx 6 months in darkroom at 55Β°F.
Patient above sought herbal remedy for described tolerance. It was suggested to augment the sourced scullcap in tea form 3x daily in addition to continuing Mirtazepine 30 mg at night as prescribed by Dr.
500 mg teabags were measured and consumed by patient 3x nightly at 5pm, 7pm and 11 pm. Tea was brewed in 12 oz water 200Β°F for 20 min. (Interesting note: brew is so strong, raw dissolved material is seen crashing out if ice is added).
Patient reported that Mirtazepine "returned to acting as if it was the first time taking it each time" upon day 1 of tea ingestion, suggesting the 'tolerance issue' is solved by conjunctional usage.
Patient continues to consume tea each night; 90 day mark reached. Patient reports feeling "very high like marijuana on roids" "at about midnight and eats everything in sight", also, "I eat so much that its hard to move the next morning at first", "my stomach is just so full, and i cant even remember all that i ate except for i find that i left food trash everywhere from banana peels to bowls of cereal milk to salad dressing on plates to almond butter jars and carrot tops". "I had to buy a bigger trashcan".
Lb stats: Weight prior to both (dec 2020): 90 lbs. Weight after start of mirtazepine alone 1 month in (jan 2021): 110 lbs. Weight after reporting tolerance (feb 2021): 98 lbs. Current weight combining both medication mirtazepine and scullcap 90 day mark: 104lbs. Of note, targeted 'normal' weight: 105-110.
Patient wishes to continue treatment plan though reports having tried over 18 scutellaria laterfloria teas online and in store having Zero effect (Covid contraction required a 2 week hiatus). Sourcing differences not well understood, though another harvest season is rapidly approaching.
Since you guys sell a fair amount of traditional Chinese medicines I was wondering if there were any plans on including Chinese Skullcap. I stumbled onto its Examine page and look forward to running some personal trials with it in the future. Thanks!
As a replacement for benzos, when I finally broke my addiction to them, I started drinking scullcap tea. Looking at the ref sheet for scullcap, there's a lot of very similar alkaloids that are all GABAergic. And the best part is, scullcap is legal. It felt equivalent to 0.25mg of xanax and is usually enough to take away any anxiety attacks I'm having. This past weekend, I made an extract, and from that, pulled the resin. I figured the resin would be strong, but I had no idea it was going to feel how it did. I've been dosing it in small amounts in the afternoon for 3 days and every time, it feels like I'm losing huge chunks of time, exactly the same feeling as a few Bars and maybe a little LSD (there's some mild psychedelia. Mostly CEVs, light OEVs, time distortion, and 'cosmic thinking'). Of course, there's no serotonin action like LSD, but I've tripped off GABA agonists in the past. So I'm thinking there's a similar mechanism at play to how some opioid agents can cause hallucination. Anyway, the experience lasts about 3 hours and I've not experienced any kind of comedown, not even the jitters (which is usually my big issue with new things. I always get jitters on comedowns from sedatives or stims) Last night I took some before bed and slept like a baby.
Anyone else do this/done this? There's little to no research on the chemicals in this plant and I can't find many anecdotal cases of this, so if there's anyone with some info about this plant or has used it extensively, please chime in!
Yesterday I read an article in a pharmaceutical magazine about GSK650394, an experimental substance that influences neurogenesis and cortisol levels. In some studies it has been found to be considerable for anxiety. Since I find the approach to target stress hormones interesting, I did some more research and there seems to be a plant substance with baicalin that can do similar things. Have any of you ever tried baicalin?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16491459
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27502757
Update 18th Sep; They arrived, I took them over the day (2x 400mg) . No anxiety so far, but today was a good and easy day anyway and it also could be a placebo. I'll monitor this and if I don't forget it, update this in a week or so. For now everything looks fine.
Update 13th Oct; took them twice daily over the last weeks. There has been some improvement over the last week (panic disorder and anxiety calming down) but I can't tell if it's the social component with seeing friends more often, doing sports more regularly or if it's the baicalin. Maybe the baicalin did help to get some of this started, but I didn't feel modified or anything like this. I would say it's something one can take, because it obviously didn't do anything bad, but I can't tell if it was the baicalin or me.
Iβm full of questions tonight.
Iβm sick of buying skullcap tincture but I never get to live in a place long enough to grow perennials. Iβve never grown skullcap. Iβm thinking of buying seedlings.
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Will American skullcap do OK in a pot?
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How much growth can I expect in a year from a small plant purchased from a nursery? If it takes 3 years to get to a harvestable size then thereβs probably no point.
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Would 3 plants produce enough plant matter to fill a pint jar for tincture?
