Posted by zero on January 16, 2005, at 18:28:36
In reply to Re: Bipolar ll: Trileptal vs. Tegretol » zero, posted by Ritch on January 16, 2005, at 15:29:32
You're quite welcome.
I understand your situation with Depakote. I've tried it too. For me it's a more potent antimanic than Tegretol, and has strong anxiolytic properties too - only thing is, it made me VERY depressed (even at low dose).
Several mood stabilizing strategies have worked for me, but the main reason I keep going back to Tegretol is tolerability & lack of bad side effects.
FWIW, I got bad headaches starting Tegretol, and at each dose increase, until I discovered the "start low go slow" approach.
Best,
z.
> > Ritch - will try to answer your questions on Tegretol & Trileptal.
> >
> > Tegretol:
> > helps me with agitation & anxiety; I don't ever have to worry about feeling "out of control" if I can take Teg.; can't tolerate a full dose (800mg./day or so) but do well on 300-400mg./day; it does have a mild "downing" effect which can aggravate depression (tiny doses of Paxil, i.e. 1-2mg/day help my depression - can't tolerate more or any without a mood stabilizer); no antidepressant effect on me; weight neutral.
> >
> > Trileptal:
> > tough to build up dose as I get the nausea/stomach pain thing (which does go away after a few weeks); made me irritable/edgy; no help w. anxiety; had a nice little antidepressant effect; have tried it 2 times (6 months once) and had to stop both times due to irritability (p'doc says "can be activating").
> >
> > Hope this helps (I've noticed over time on this board, that we have some similarities in symptoms and med. responses - your posts are helpful).
> >
> > z.
> >
> > Tegretol - 300mg./day
> > Klonopin - 2mgs./day
> > Neurontin - 400mg./day
> > Paxil - 1 "chip", approx. 1-2mg./day every 2nd or 3rd day
> >
>
> THANKS! I just had this gut feeling (no pun intended) that "Trileptal works the same as Tegretol" was likely to not be entirely correct (perhaps for epilepsy but not for mood disorders). So, the Teg worked for anx. but not much for depression? Hey, as long as it would help with agitation as much as Depakote, and have an added or improved antianxiety (hopefully antipanic) bonus - without getting fat or depressed it sounds like it would be the perfect switch if we decided to change to something other than Depakote as a primary mood stabilizer. The trouble I have with Depakote isn't the weight thing so much, and not cognitive sfx really, it's that the dose that is required to settle my cycling down (as good as Trileptal did) pushes me into a med-induced constant mild depressive state. I just think that Teg would be far less depressogenic (generally) than Depakote - mainly based on the anecdotal stuff I've read. And I do know that Trileptal had just as good an antimanic effect and definitely a superior anticyclic effect for me - except for the damned nausea! You said it did settle down after several weeks for you. Maybe I just have to titrate far far more slowly. Oh, my current meds are:
>
> Depakote 250-375mg
> Clonazepam .5-1.0mg
> Neurontin 100mg hs
> Liquid Celexa .3mg (yes point3) every other day.
>
> THANKS AGAIN!
poster:zero
thread:47128
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/442897.html