Posted by Ritch on February 11, 2005, at 13:16:04
In reply to Re: Depakote - substance induced mania, posted by lizardk on February 11, 2005, at 11:24:58
> > > My reaction to paxil and lexapro was bouncing off the walls with panic,anxiety,restlessness, and racing thoughts.It felt like i needed and elephant tranquilizer dart to calm me down.I'm not sure if that suggest bipolar or just substance induced mania, but my doc seems to think bipolar.
> >
> > Have you tried any other class of antidepressants such as MAOI, Wellbutrin, trazodone, or tricyclics? If you get manic reactions to SSRI's (and probably Effexor and Cymbalta as well), the others might not provoke the problems you describe and might work rather well for you (perhaps without Depakote). You didn't mention euphoria or irritability in your description of the reactions.
>
> I've tried wellbutrin with no effects, but none of the other classes.I was extremely irritable but hard to tell if that was just from being completely agitated and panicking.I had no euphoria at all.I would be interested to try MAOI's or tricyclics but my doc seems to be convinced I have bipolar spectrum or bipolar NOS and keeps prescribing my AP's and suggests mood stabilizers, which i haven't tried yet.I just called today because I've been feeling almost suicidal theses last few days and he prescribed me Geodon.I have my reservations about Geodon too but I don't know what to do.
>I don't want to have to take any antipsychotics ever again. I've been on conventionals and atypicals and while they seem to have been helpful at times on a short term basis I've gotten either restless, depressed, or dystonic reactions from them and I don't like the idea of taking them chronically. Symptom-wise you did experience some irritability with the racing thoughts so that sounds like a mixed episode with anxiety, however ... agitated GAD-like depressions with panic can definitely happen in nonbipolar people.. probably folks that have a *primary* anxiety disorder that get depressed and wigged out from the anxiety. SSRi's are the "first line" treatment for an anxiety problem now and if you are unlucky to be one of those people who are genetically hypersensitive to them you might get a bipolar dx that is inappropriate. That said.. Depakote is generally good for "mixed" bipolar states and I think it would better to be on something like Depakote chronically rather than an antipsychotic, but that's just my opinion. Your pdoc is already suggesting it.. I would give it a try and see how you do on it. I've heard a couple of anecdotal stories here about Geodon triggering hypomania.. so maybe it would be a good idea to talk to your pdoc about starting either the Geodon or Depakote but not *both* at the same time. Otherwise it might be hard to tell what is helping or possibly worsening any of your symptoms. I hope you get better soon!
poster:Ritch
thread:455879
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050207/msgs/456313.html