Posted by Ritch on December 12, 2004, at 19:09:44
In reply to Thank You! Thank You! » barbaracat, posted by smith562 on December 12, 2004, at 17:28:40
>...So I guess I am Bipolar III (I think hypomania with nardil) with panic disorder. My problem is mood stablizers do nothing for the depression and SSRIs flat me out and TCAs/Wellbutrin increase my panic.
Damned if I mood stablize, damned if I antidepress! Any thoughs .....
Smith
Hi, my troubles are similar (BP+panic). The stuff that works the best for my depression tends to make my panic problems worse (WB, stims). Depakote by itself (or just with clonazepam with no AD), tend to start making me depressed. The SSRI's *do* reduce panic anxiety, but they tend to make me mood cycle a lot more and then I get the apathetic depression from them! I'm afraid that the only thing I've found for this is to reduce *everything* to the lowest level that keeps pretty much everything under control. So, I take just enough Depakote to keep the mania away(believe me it does come back if I don't take *something* for that and I don't have to wait very long either). And I take just enough clonazepam to keep from getting full-blown panic attacks. Then I add the *smallest* dose of SSRI that will clearly improve anxiety. Because if the clon. goes up I will get depressed, if the SSRI goes up I will start cycling too much. If the Depakote goes up I will be sleeping 12+hrs a day.So... I really don't know what to recommend since I'm in a similar pickle myself (and I certainly don't think I've really solved it). I think Barbara's idea of slowly lowering the Zoloft might be the best place to start. IOW, look at what you are taking and see if there is something you can reduce or eliminate that is a potential *source* of trouble. Or at least try to figure out *what* is causing trouble. Hope this helps...
poster:Ritch
thread:425540
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041211/msgs/428514.html