Posted by med_empowered on March 28, 2005, at 22:00:47
In reply to ATTN: BP Spectr/Soft BP'ers - Effexor help/ hell?, posted by jasmineneroli on March 28, 2005, at 19:18:49
hey! *ANY* anti-depressant for a bipolar person could push that person into mania/hypomania or speed up the "cycling" process, among other things. Soo...ADs for bipolars/suspected bipolars are best used with caution, and should *ideally* be used with a mood-stabilizer. That said, Effexor, in my experience, is really popular for Bipolar Disorder; it seems to be second to Wellbutrin in this use (wellbutrin is pretty good when it comes to mania/hypomania. I only did low-dose Effexor for about 6months, along with a mood-stabilizer (Trileptal), Klonopin, and as-needed sleep aids (I think it was Neurontin at the time). It worked reasonably well, and the withdrawal wasn't all that bad (although *lots* of people have bad withdrawal from Effexor). Effexor is supposedly good stuff for "resistant" or "atypical" depression, and is also used for anxiety treatment. Unfortunately, its impossible to predict just how your friend will react to Effexor or any other anti-depressant...keep in mind that even people who have *never* had signs of bipolar disorder can have drug-induced manias/hypomanias and occasionally psychotic episodes on anti-depressants. Sucks, but it happens. My personal recommendation would be to see if a doc will RX a short-term supply of benzodiazepenes and/or an as-needed sleeping pill until the visit with the new shrink. These meds won't stabilize the mood as well as, say, lithium, but they are very effective and safer to use in bipolars than antidepressants.
poster:med_empowered
thread:476898
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050326/msgs/476969.html