Posted by chemist on July 24, 2004, at 23:22:59
In reply to Re: Help!! Worried about taking so much medication. » chemist, posted by SLS on July 24, 2004, at 19:55:56
> > i can comment on trileptal, as i took the same dose you did a while back and it was when i was diagnosed bipolar I/II.
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> > but your reaction to trileptal is almost identical to what was mine. assuming that your increased energy/lessened anxiety is attributable to trileptal alone, is worthwhile noting that this medication is prescribed off-label for mood disorders.
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> Hi Chemist.
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> A few questions, if you don't mind...
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> Do you still consider yourself to be bipolar? How does your illness present? If Trileptal helped, why are you still not taking it? Do you think Trileptal can exert antidepressant effects in bipolar disorder?
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> Thanks.
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> I am not too happy with Zonegran at this point. It is producing too much fatigue. It was my hope that it would punch a hole through my bipolar depression. I guess it is still early, though - 24 days. Maybe the fatigue will dissipate and the depression will lift and I will live happily ever after...
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> - Scotthey scott...i was diagnosed bipolar by a psychiatrist who is a specialist in bipolar disorder, and is a faculty member at a medical school. i was diagnosed with GAD/panic attacks with agoraphobia and depression/OCD by a psychiatrist whom i first sought, years ago. there is a theme here. i am back with my very first psych - the OCD one - and he is currently trying to determine if there is a mood disorder or not. all signs point to mild to moderate unipolar depression and anxiety. we (he, my therapist, and i) have mutually agreed not to even try to label what is wrong: i like this approach in that we are back to therapy and psychiatry to being geared towards treating the patient, not the symptoms. now, to answer your questions: i do not consider myself bipolar, yet i see signs of hypomania and depression, as does my doc/T. this may or may not be the case, as trileptal helped during the period of time that i was being treated as a bipolar patient. i stopped taking it due to a change in life's circumstances that resulted in my being reunited with my first pdoc who made the very salient observation that ``you went to a psychiatrist whose specialty is bipolar illness (Steven Dubovsky: i urge you to look him up on pubmed), spent an hour with him, and were diagnosed as bipolar.'' this was, shall we say, an eye-opener for me. the write-up (sent to my regular pdoc) notes that my speech was pressured, that i have done some questionable things that could be considered self-destructive (things like shoplifting a record when i was 12 years old or being verbally aggresive, qualities that are not true markers for bipolar, maybe being a kid and a loudmouth?), and has recently moved (geographically). depakote was a flop, trileptal + dexedrine + valium was a winner. then, another move, and back to luvox + dexedrine + xanax. in between, the list is endless. trileptal helped quite a bit when i was in the sway of bipolar: luvox helped many years ago, and is doing the job now. what i am trying to state is that i have probably been responsive to treatments that addressed problems that i felt/feel are evident. i am not immune to the placebo effect. trileptal worked for me when i was certain that trileptal worked for me. parnate is another drug i am very much in favor of, having taken that before the bipolar dx. i know this answer is leaving a lot of doors open, but that is the story. my read on my condition is that i am naturally (truly) on the hypomanic side, prone to depression that is not debilitating, and for certain an anxious person with a history of panic attacks. the dexedrine was and is supplied for putative add/adhd, and the current team agrees that it helps but the fact that i do not take it every day or in the maximum dose brings into question the add/adhd dx. that said, i can wash down 30 mg of dexedrine over the course of a day with 2 cups of coffee and still get 8 hours of sleep. go figure. in the end, my winning combos have been: trileptal/dexedrine/valium, parnate/ativan/ambien, and luvox/dexedrine/xanax, and the last one in the list is the one i am on now and differs from my first course of treatment by the addition of dexedrine prn. do let me know if any of this is of help or if i failed to address anything in your post......all the best, chemist
poster:chemist
thread:369924
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/370153.html