Posted by Blue Cheer 1 on January 24, 2002, at 0:59:31
In reply to Re: Interesting - lithium protects neurotrophic factor » Blue Cheer 1, posted by SLS on January 23, 2002, at 21:15:48
> Hi Blue.
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>
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> > Unfortunately (for us), bipolar disorder is a neurodegenerative disease,
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> How so? Aside from progressive kindling, are these things irreversible?
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> > and one should do whatever it takes to slow down its progression.
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> What are you doing in this regard? I have been thinking recently about taking 300-600mg of lithium.
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> Thanks for your input.
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> - Scott
Hi Scott,I should've said neurodegenerative aspects of the disease since that was how my psychiatrist termed it. But there was a great article in the June issue of _Bipolar Disorders_ (The Neuroanatomy and Neuropsychology of Bipolar Affetive Disorder: A Critical Review) by Carrie Bearden et al. I have it printed out somewhere (lengthy), but there's an abstract of it in Medline. If I can still access it online, I'll post some of its contents. (I gave the issue to my psychiatrist, but I'm sure I can get it back.) It goes into detail in describing how bipolar disorder (especially long-term with many episodes) causes an overall decline in cognitive functioning, etc.
Since I'm half-asleep right now, I'll just give some keywords so you can search google.
"neurotrophic manji" "lithium plasticity manji" "depression cerebellum" "lithium robust" "lithium cell death" "neurotrophic lithium" "bipolar neurodegenerative" "lithium glutamate" "husseini manji"
In Medline: "bipolar manji" "neuroanatomy bipolar affective"
According to Dr. Manji and other researchers, you can slow down its progression (increase gray matter and protect existing brain cells) by using lithium and/or Depakote. I've never been able to tolerate Depakote at any dose, and my kidney function prevents me from returning to lithium. (Although I use Lamictal, which may have neuroprotective effects.) Assuming Trileptal has the same cytoprotective/neurotrophic effects of Tegretol, using that doesn't help in my case. I also use Aricept 10 mg. q. AM (prescribed as a mood stabilizer), but I have no clue what it's really doing.If I can still access the article from blackwell-synergy from the library, then possibly I can email it to you. (Someone changed the usernames and passwords to my online versions of J Clin Psychiatry and Bipolar Disorders.)
Btw, I'm just now coming out of a severe bipolar depression episode that lasted *one year* this month, so I can identify with what you've been through.
Best wishes,
Blue
poster:Blue Cheer 1
thread:91073
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020116/msgs/91371.html