Has anyone heard about research involving famotidine or antihistamines

Has anyone heard about research involving antihistamines or famotidine?
I don’t have any expectations of a miracle drug but a reduction of negative symptoms would be amazing.
Thank you.

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I believe that a lot of older antipsychotic meds were basically antihistamines.

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At low doses, Seroquel is an antihistamine…

Antihistamines are often used to reduce anxiety or treat tremors. I’ve used Famotidine (Pepcid) in the hospital several times intravenously, don’t know what it has to do with schizophrenia, but there is research about gastrointestinal bacteria and how it affects schizophrenia and other disorders from what I’ve seen out there. A temporary miracle cure for cluster headaches is a cocktail of Compazine (antipsychotic, often used to treat schizophrenia), Toradol (N-SAID; reduces inflammation), and Benadryl (antihistamine). So maybe a combination could help? I know this because I have cluster headaches, so every once in a while I go to the hospital and ask for it when it’s a 10, but I’m currently on Depokate Sprinkles (Divalproex), which is helping a lot. Also controls my epilepsy and in high doses treats bipolar disorder (I don’t have bipolar disorder). The antihistamine (Benadryl), along with the hydrating fluids, is a key by the way. I was once in a hurry to go home and work on my homework, so I left without taking the Benadryl and it was hell. It was a never-ending panic attack and for some reason my whole body was shaking, I felt like I was going to die. Now even if I don’t want to, I drink a lot of water with any medicine that I take; it helps reduce the side effects and pushes it out of your body through your kidneys.

Yes - I just discovered that this is true. Here is some reading on this general topic:

and

Antihistamine Decreases Schizophrenia Symptoms

http://www.psychcongress.com/article/antihistamine-decreases-schizophrenia-symptoms

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Yes - there is a fair amount of (early) research on this - and since its available over the counter it might be worth a try.

Famotidine (Pepcid)

https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/07/02/does-heartburn-drug-pepcid-hold-promise-for-schizophrenia/56730.html

and

New treatment for schizophrenia?

and

And you can find it here online using the Google shopping search engine:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pepcid&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwjOLEs9vSAhXkh1QKHXl3BBwQ_AUICCgB&biw=1387&bih=803

If anyone tries it - please report back here on if it works/ helps or not…

Yeah, the link works. Zantac (Ranitidine) also works similarly. It’s worth looking into. :slight_smile:

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I have also seen research and articles addressing gut imbalance and mental illness.

https://psychcentral.com/news/2016/12/08/how-gut-bacteria-may-impact-mental-illness-treatment/113593.html

That’s good information and a good reminder that we should all be concerned about our diet - I need this reminder constantly or I’ll just eat junk more than half the time.

I hate to throw more pills of any kind at my son, but he’ll eat yogurt so I’m going to make sure I have more in the house.

Homemade yogurt is really easy & cheap to make too if anyone wants to know exactly what’s in theirs or they’re on a budget.

How do you make homemade yogurt?

There are tons of recipes online, but you basically only need a gallon of milk plus a little cup of plain yogurt as a starter.

Heat the milk to between 185 & 195.
Cool it to 120 (fahrenheit).
Whisk in the little cup of plain yogurt.
Pour it in clean jars (like pint or quart mason jars).
Then, put the jars in a cooler, pour hot water (120 degrees) in over the jars just up to the lids.
Let it sit anywhere from 8 to over 24 hours - the longer it sits, the more of a twangy yogurt taste it gets.

Then refrigerate & the yogurt is good to eat for the next few weeks.

If you’re going to make more, reserve about 1/2 a cup of the yogurt to use as the starter on your next batch.

It was really easy. Then if you like your yogurt sweetened or with fruit, you can add it as you eat it.

I wasn’t sure about it to start, so I only used 1/2 a gallon of milk so I wouldn’t have too much and I let it sit for 12 hours. The only thing I did different was I filled the cooler with hot water ahead of time to preheat it, then dumped that water out & used fresh when I put the jars in.

Instead of the cooler, some people heat up their oven on low, then turn it off when they put their jars in & let them sit there. Lots of advice online.

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That’s really convenient. What kind of milk are you supposed to use though, there are many out there?

Full-fat dairy milk.

They say soy & nut milks won’t work & lower fat milks will result in runny yogurt.

The yogurt cultures convert the dairy sugars and lactose over to something else - the longer you let it sit, the more it converts, so it should be fine to eat even if you have problems with lactose.

People like making it because it either saves them a lot of money over buying yogurt in small packs if they eat a lot of it or they like that they can control the quality of the ingredients.

Maybe your fiance will like it because you put it in glass jars?
I use mason jars, but any jar would work.

Perhaps he would, actually. Thank you so much for the suggestion and your response!! :smile:

What I read said it had to be given in large doses to pass the blood-brain barrier and they are unsure if long-term use of a dose of this size is safe.