Posted by Ron Hill on May 21, 2002, at 18:03:37
In reply to Re: Neurontin ...here are my thoughts..., posted by MomO3 on May 18, 2002, at 23:24:46
Mom03,
Sounds like you and I have traveled similar roads. I've been on this road for six years and, as a result, I have learned where some of the potholes are located.
I am BP II and I currently take 600 mg/day of Lithobid. I'm doing very well. However, six years ago I was initially misdiagnosed as ADHD and prescribed Ritalin. The Ritalin pushed me into mania big time. But the mania felt so good that I could not be convinced by the people around me that something was wrong. And my ex-pdoc did not recognize my mania but instead kept writing scripts for Ritalin (can you say malpractice?).
To make a long story short, I lost my job as an environmental engineer, ran up $70K of credit card debt, cashed in and spent my retirement account, etc. The thing about mania (hypomania) is that these actions actually seemed logical at the time.
I'm posting here just in case I can help you in some way. If I can help, let me know.
Everything you have written in this tread leads me to believe that you are probably bipolar, but I'm not a pdoc. Also, it is common to use Neuronin as an adjunct medication for BP patients, but I have never seen it recommended for monotherapy use in treating BP disorder. Here is a good technical article regarding medication options for BP patients:
http://www.psychguides.com/gl-treatment_of_bp2000.html
It's somewhat understandable that BP II patients are routinely misdiagnosed as ADHD because the symptoms of BP II hypomania are very similar in outward appearance to ADHD hyperactivity. I have a couple very good articles listing specific behaviors that differentiate the two disorders. For example, BP II patients are typically not morning people in that they have trouble getting up in the morning, whereas, ADHD patients generally bounce out of bed raring to go. General statements such as this are not true in all cases, of course, but the articles sure seemed applicable to me. My wife and I recently bought a new computer and the bookmarks to these articles are on the old computer which is currently not hooked up. I'll try to remember to send these links to you went I can.
In cases of comorbid BP II and ADHD, it is important to treat the BP II first. Put a moodstabilizer fully in place BEFORE adding a pstim (or an AD)!
-- Ron
poster:Ron Hill
thread:106220
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020517/msgs/107192.html