Posted by Ritch on January 16, 2005, at 15:35:47
In reply to Re: Bipolar ll: Trileptal vs. Tegretol » Ritch, posted by Minnie-Haha on January 16, 2005, at 13:21:20
> > Hi, sorry to switch gears somewhat, but you brought up a very interesting topic about the difference between Trileptal and Tegretol. I've only tried Tegretol once (a long long time ago) during a bad depression (as a switch from Lithium) and it didn't seem to help the depression ... but I only tried switching for a couple of weeks and then went back to lithium. Anyhow, I've been on Trileptal for a few weeks in the last few years and found I couldn't tolerate it due to bad nausea...
>
> I have NOT taken Tegretol, but have taken Trileptal. (In fact, I'm on it now.) What others have posted here about watching your serum sodium levels is important. I live in Arizona and drink a lot of water and I have to watch that my sodium level doesn't go *below* normal. You should have it checked periodically on Trileptal. My pdoc always told me to make sure that every third beverage I took was something besides water. Trileptal helps me from getting extremely depressed, but isn't effective monotherapy for depression. Depakote made me fat.
>Yes, when low serum sodium happens (hyponatremia) you tend to get thirsty and can't get enough water-- I think "water intoxication" is the term for that. If you've seen Scorcese's "Bringing Out the Dead", there is a perfect example of that (I think) with the street guy who they wouldn't allow to drink any water who was always thirsty. I don't really think there IS an effective mood stabilizer that is effective monotherapy for depression. Lamictal seems to poop out on a lot of people after awhile, and when I was on Lithium monotherapy I still got major depressive episodes and panic attacks. If I start up Trileptal again I guess I will just have to start at 75mg and stay on it for two weeks then slowly increase. I really felt pretty stable on just 300mg.
poster:Ritch
thread:47128
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/442831.html