Posted by SLS on May 13, 2001, at 10:51:40
In reply to Re: Tamoxifen - experience with as a mood stabilizer? » Chris A., posted by judy1 on May 12, 2001, at 21:17:18
> Anyway, her symptoms are not as severe as yours, but she has found relief with verapamil, a CCB. Just wondering if you have ever taken it? Take care, judyThat's not a bad idea. It might be worth a shot. There is some thought that certain L-type calcium channel blockers might be useful for treatment-resistant bipolar disorder. The only two drugs I know of that are consistently investigated are verapamil and nimodipine, both of which have been used with some success. The NIMH was also looking at isradipine My impression at the moment is that they are not effective in the majority of cases, and are not very useful as monotherapy, but they can work well when combined with mood-stabilizers like carbamazepine. I don't like nifedipine. I believe that nifedipine can actually cause depression, and has even been reported to reverse the remission produced by antidepressants (at least the tricyclics).
Chris, I would not extrapolate your negative reaction to nimodipine to verapamil. They are derived from completely different chemical families. I am not strongly suggesting that you try it, but is a good thought.
One of my motivations to stick my nose back in this thread was to comment on the desirability of discontinuing estrogen abruptly. My first reaction is that this would be analogous to the precipitous drop in estrogen postpartum that might be at least partially responsible for postpartum depression. The other thing is that it takes some time before the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis becomes resensitized so that the body resumes making estrogen on its own.
I don't know. Just a thought.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:62381
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010507/msgs/62734.html