Posted by Squiggles on November 22, 2002, at 8:24:47
Whether or not Valium withdrawal
can mimic bipolar disorder, is an
idea that has hounded me since my
net involvement with Ray Nimmo of
Benzoland.Because, there are "psychotic" and
depressive side effects to withdrawing
from benzos, it is possible to be
misdiagnosed.And, of course it was close to concurrent
in my case when i was a graduate student
at McGill, that this breakdown happened.
I was taking Valium unmonitored, and it
was a stressful year.However, waking up this morning, this idea
just hit me without reflection really --
IF it was Valium withdrawal i was experiencing
then Carbamazepine, or more Benzos, or
Phenobarbitol and ONLY those type of drugs
would kill the withdrawal symptoms. On the
contrary, what happened was that the Lithium
killed them.So, what can be concluded from that i think,
is that either it was not Valium withdrawal
(and really was bipolar symptoms) OR Lithium
is capable of stopping Valium withdrawal
symptoms.Well, i'm getting closer to something but
still not conclusive. If it can be proved
that Lithium cannot stop benzo withrawal,
then that would be close to proof i think.Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:128739
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021122/msgs/128739.html