Posted by Ron Hill on March 8, 2002, at 1:24:27
In reply to To Ron Hill: » Ron Hill, posted by Janelle on March 7, 2002, at 17:24:43
>What does AED mean?Anti-Epileptic Drug
> I wonder if you got a rash from Lamictal because you either started at too high a dose or titrated up too rapidly. The thing with Lamictal is to go "LOW AND SLOW", meaning start with a micro (pediatric) dose (which is what I did) and titrate VERY slowly and gradulally into the hundreds of mg's. I never got the rash.
No, I did "low and slow" but still got bad rashes. I truely wish I could tolerate Lamictal because I like its mood stablizing effect a little better than Lithobid. But don't misunderstand, I like Lithobid just fine.
> You're the first person I've heard of who got a rash on DEPAKOTE - I've heard that one can start losing hair on that one, which is a concern for me.
Ya, I am very sensitive to medications. And yes, my hair fell out at an alarming rate!
> You also mentioned something else which concerns me - you said that Li does a fine job of keeping you out of hypomania but does very little for your depression. Well, since I don't really have much, if any, hypomania, I'm wondering how effective Li will be for me, if it doesn't doo much for depression (I read on some other site, that Li is for the MANIC part of BiPolar).
For some people, Li does provide an antidepressant effect. More typically perhaps, an AD add-on is used with Li to treat the depression (this describes my situation where my AD add-on is SAM-e). However, a mood stablizer must be fully in place prior to giving the bipolar patient an AD (including SAM-e), otherwise, there is a high risk of pushing the patient into mania. So, if you are bipolar and if you need something to treat your depression, then the first thing you need is to get a moodstablizer in place.
You do not sound like you are currently depressed. Are you? You went on Effexor and came off, and you went on Lamictal and came off. Are you taking any meds currently?
Did your past and current pdocs both dx you as bipolar?JohnX2 is giving you good advice. Also scan through the lengthy document posted by Cam. The document addresses the issues you raise.
-- Ron
poster:Ron Hill
thread:96752
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020307/msgs/96999.html