Posted by JonW on March 10, 2002, at 10:44:47
In reply to Re: Nardil » JonW, posted by JohnX2 on March 9, 2002, at 23:09:01
Hi John,
Thanks for your reply. Well, I've had a somewhat positive experience with Klonopin as well. I would get into this agitated skin crawling somewhat mixed states, and one Klono (.5) is all it would take to calm the seas. It really is an amazing drug. For awhile, I was taking it as part of my cocktail. Unfortunately, it was making me even more depressed and Dr. Ivan Goldberg pointed out that it often makes difficult to treat people even more difficult to treat. So I dropped it for Neurontin, which I think was a good decision.
Does Lamictal at 150mg give you any memory problems? I would be in a conversation with someone thinking about what I was going to say in response to what they were saying and then when it was my turn to speak I would have no idea what I wanted to say. I felt like such an idiot! :) And topomax, AKA stupimax, doesn't give you any bad side-effects?
I only take 2.5mg of Zyprexa but it gives me twitches, and if I go to 5mg they are a lot worse. I was thinking of replacing it with Seroquel. Since you said that you still have swings throughout the day, I assume you have ultra rapid or ultradian cycling. I've heard nimodipine mentioned as having a special place for this type of cycling. Have you ever tried nimodipine? I was thinking of asking my psydoc about it.
I'm not sure what AD I've had the best response to because I don't think I've ever really stuck it out long enough with many I've been on. Previously, I felt moclobemide was the best but I'm not sure. Zoloft definitely made me the most hypomanic but this time with time with the mood stabilizers on board I didn't seem to have a hypomanic reaction. However, I get very agitated and irritable at 25mg and have had to drop down to 12.5mg. Lately, it seems to be brightning my mood a bit after I dropped Aricept. Maybe I'm just cycling or I shook things up by dropping Aricept, I don't know. I'm looking for as much chemical help as possible and I'm concerned that Zoloft is going to fool into thinking I'm OK and allow me to get by. That's why I'm interested in Nardil because it might be a more complete solution -- especially, considering my symptoms. Say Nardil is the thing for me, do you think it's possible to accomplish similar results without Nardil? Is there any reason to believe moclobemide would be as good as Nardil? Sorry for the long post, I'm rambling.
Thanks,
Jon> Hi Jon,
>
> Well, can't say you haven't "been there done
> that" with the mood stabilizers! Sorry.
>
> Depakote was a placebo for me.
> Neurontin had an anti-anxiety but no
> mood stabilizer effect.
> Lamictal works at 150 mg, but does nothing
> at any other dose (gives me a headache
> at higher dose).
>
> Unfortunately I took Effexor,Paxil,Wellbutrin,
> and Zoloft, and Serzone before getting a good bipolar diagnosis.
> Of those, Sezone gave me an AD response without
> a mood stabilizer and didn't make me severly
> manic, whereas Zoloft and Wellbutrin made me
> manic.
>
> Lately I was taking this for a few months:
>
> Lamictal 150 mg
> Zyprexa 5-15 mg
> Klonopin 6 mg
> Topamax 400 mg
>
> I was tolerant to Klonopin and I don't know if
> you saw my posts, when I started to dump it I became
> really manic and my pdoc pushed my Zyprexa to 15 mg.
> But the mania was really bad...I spent 300 dollars on
> plumbing tubing trying to build a golf driving range
> in my dining room and I thought there was a conspiracy
> at work to get me fired, etc..ugh.
>
> Anyways I got the Klon. down to 1 mg and the bad
> mania went away and I subsequently stopped Zyprexa (which
> I generally liked) due to some twitching.
> I added Serzone to help with some headaches,
> and frankly it has really helped my mood. But now I
> am a bit cylothymic again. I go through intraday swings.
> Its better than without the Serzone. I don't know if I
> can really tweak it any more. So for me Serzone is
> about the only AD i can tolerate. It helps without
> causing too much hypomania and it isn't making
> me swing back into depression. So I just found
> this by trial and error (I've only been on it
> a few weeks, but I did ok on it before. Cross my fingers).
> Btw, if you dose Serzone up very slowly it is
> excellent for anxiety and sleep.
>
> Some people think you ultimately gotta deal
> with the little swings. Do you feel the atypical anti-psychotics
> have helped you out more?
>
> If you went back to an old anti-depressant that you liked, do
> you think your current regimine of stabilizers would do a better
> job of smoothing things over?
>
> Sorry you have been through the wringer. I know you must be
> like me and want to just kinda get it over with and
> "stick" with something, and move on, right?
>
> Usually if I am down, my symptoms are atypical too, I
> have no drive, etc. I really loved wellbutrin if it didn't
> make me so manic and give me headaches. I'm into these
> fringe ideas for mood stabilizers that are in clinical trials
> that I think might help me, but I can't talk my pdoc into
> them.
>
> What do you think about Mitch's augmentation idea?
> Maybe good for a quick test before switching AD's
> altogether.
>
> Also, I'd contemplate an MAOI myself, but I live in Texas
> and all I eat is tex-mex cheese and i would cheat on the
> beer, is the diet all that bad? Eh, probably make
> me manic. I loved Adderall, but it drove me kookoo according
> to my friends (whom I kept calling all day and night).
> What did the stims do to you (keep you calm)?
>
> PS, I'd love to swap my hypomanic stories if I didn't
> have so many silly and embarrassing episodes.
>
> best wishes,
> John
poster:JonW
thread:97093
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020307/msgs/97325.html