Posted by Nickengland on September 21, 2005, at 15:39:28
In reply to Re: How long should I give Keppra to work? » med_empowered, posted by SLS on September 21, 2005, at 7:37:09
Hello Scott,
>Although bipolar, I suffer only from depression.
Without medication, am I right in thinking your illness would follow the diagnosis of unipolar depression?
>My bipolar diagnosis is based upon my displaying episodes of severe mania in association with antidepressant use.
That must be a tricky situation to say the least ~ with regards to treating depression with standard antidepressant medication which then produces symptoms to that of mania which a bipolar person would have?
(I'm kind of answering my own questions, hope you'll be able to correct me if i'm wrong lol)
In essence, would your illness be seen as unipolar depression, but when treated with antidepressants in effect your symptoms then present as drug induced mania? ~ therefore warrent the diagnosis of bipolar 3?
I've always wondered about the bipolar 3 diagnosis because its like without the use of antidepressants, the illness would not exist, but of course there is the depression to treat and when treating it - that is when the induced mania presents...but the mania is man made so to speak by the medical industry itself that treats depression - kind of like a drug induced depression from an antimanic.. Or even (slightly wacky lol) but when one would have a drug induced psychosis from lsd!
Looking back, I think when I took lamictal I had a drug induced mania to some extent, but a very unplensent experience to say the least and the SSRI's caused some kind of mixed state...its a real pain in the *ss when these medications can make you worse off than you was without them...
Thought i'd mention that I increased the Topamax to 37.5mg a couple weeks ago and had an immediate antidepressant effect (it did where off slightly after a few days once by system had adjusted) but I think the extra 12.5mg has given me extra benefits with regards to relieving depression. I plan to make the final increase to 50mg in about a week or so and will leave the dose there I think. I know topamax is something you'd probably like to avoid, but I thought i'd update you on my progress as I know you're always on the look out for antidepressant efficiency within the bipolar area :-) ~ I now realise I do have some cognitive impairment, but all in all i'm happy with the way the drug performs in general vs side effects compared to that of the other mood stabilisers i've taken..
Kind regards
Nick
poster:Nickengland
thread:557541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050921/msgs/557696.html