Posted by med_empowered on March 12, 2005, at 10:45:37
In reply to Re: SSRI's ? giggle-pill hypomania? » Ritch, posted by CK1 on March 11, 2005, at 15:28:13
Hey! The anti-depressant induced mania+ other problems interest me. Apparently, there's no clear-cut answer as to whether or not anti-depressant induced mania is bipolar, a variant of bipolar, or just a drug side-effect. My old shrink (I had a number of friends with the same doc) labelled ever anti-depressant induced mania/hypomania a sign of bipolar II, and medicated accordingly. My current shrink, who is older and has been practicing longer, takes a different view. Her view seems to be that the mania/hypomania should first be regarded as an adverse drug reaction; once the initial problem has subsided, she tries to reserve judgement for a while. Sometimes, there does appear to be an underlying bipolar-ish problem, though I think she said she usually considers it cyclothymia. I don't know which approach I like more; on the one hand, you shouldn't be too cautious about DXing BP; on the other hand, calling all these reactions a sign of BP ignores the fact that antidepressants are powerful meds that are bound to have side-effects...with tricyclics, for instance, it has long been noted that some people who have never had psychosis before may well experience psychotic symptoms as a result of med exposure...since the psychosis subsides after drug withdrawal, these people are not labelled as having a "psychotic disorder,"; rather, it is considered a "drug-induced psychosis," akin to what is seen in high-dose stimulant users (and sometimes people RX'd therapeutic doses of stimulants, too).
poster:med_empowered
thread:468932
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050312/msgs/470033.html