Posted by OldSchool on March 25, 2002, at 15:28:20
In reply to Re: ltp in the hippocampus » OldSchool, posted by SLS on March 25, 2002, at 6:22:24
> Hi OldSchool.
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> How much lithium were you taking? Do you recall what your blood levels were?I was taking 600 mg Lithobid with 300 mg Effexor XR. The Lithium totally made me more depressed and honestly, more sappy and cranky feeling. Everyone hated me on it. Then, after I got the lithium level my Pdoc told me the level was a bit low and told me to go up to 900 mg, which I did. When I did that, my vision got kinda blurry but I did start feeling a little better. I didnt like the blurry vision thing at all, nor the metallic taste in my mouth I got from lithium and it didnt have much of an AD effect in me. So after just two or three days on 900 mg, I quit it and went back to plain old Effexor.
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> > I tried lithium augmentation of Effexor once. The lithium was a total disaster, it brought me down sooooo much. A total mood dampener it was for me. I stayed on it for about eight weeks. Everybody around me said I was terrible on it. After I went off of it though, I found that the Effexor seemed to work better in subtle ways. Not as bad poop out as before. The lithium definitely did something, I dont know what.
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> I don't like the way I feel when I take lithium at dosages of 600mg/day and higher. It definitely flattens-out my affect, leaves me apathetic and unmotivated, and without creativity. Overall, I felt more depressed on it. I think my blood-level at 600mg was 0.45 ng/ml. For bipolar disorder, the therapeutic range is accepted to be somewhere between 0.8 and 1.2.Lithium totally flattened me out like a pancake. Made me feel like a depressed robot. However, Ive wondered maybe what just lithium by itself at a theraputic level would do for me. Maybe just 900 mg lithium and no antidepressant for me? Maybe I will try that right before I have ECT.
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> Dr. Manji and others have investigated the neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects of lithium at low, subtherapeutic dosages. Even at these low dosages, lithium exerted marked positive effects. I am hoping that a dosage of 300mg - 450mg will help with these things.Lithium at low doses made me depressed as dirt.
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> When lithium is employed as an augmentor of antidepressants, dosages of between 300mg - 600mg are often optimal. I don't know what range of blood-levels this represents. I would guess something like 0.4 - 0.6.Maybe I should go back and just try plain old lithium, by itself, nothing else. Get rid of antidepessants and go to adequate blood levels. Maybe I should do that right before I have ECT to be sure Im not bipolar.
Old School
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> - Scott
poster:OldSchool
thread:98310
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020322/msgs/100074.html