Posted by detroitpistons on May 26, 2006, at 11:41:14
In reply to First choice mood stabilizer?, posted by butternut on May 23, 2006, at 19:54:19
My doctor put me on Lamictal when I started becoming hypomanic. Overall, it's a great med. It did succeed in calming me down a tad, but in my opinion, Lamictal was the wrong choice for my particular situation. It takes several weeks to get up to the right does, and it is NOT a very good antimanic agent. I'm still having breakthrough symptoms of irritable hypomania.
If you are not hypo/manic, however, Lamictal is a great choice for the depression end of things. Lamictal is more of a maintenance drug for people who's primary problem is depression. This is true with me too, but when I was getting hypomanic, he should have given me something like Depakote for acute mania.
> I have a PDoc appt scheduled next week and plan to request a mood stabilizer. I am thinking I want to ask for Lamictal first in order to ward off weight gain. I have already gained a lot of weight from Zoloft, which made me tired and crave sugar all the time. Any recommendations on what to try first? My PDOC once said he would put me on Geodon if I ever exhibited bipolar symptoms. I don't want to go that route, because it seems like a mood stabilizer should be step one, then we can add on other things.
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> My official diagnosis is recurring major depression, but my PDOC and I suspect bipolar as I have a family history of it. My panic attacks and depressions go way back to elementary school and have at times been in remission, but they always come back. I do not have any highs , but I do seem to change from irritable and easily frustrated and enough energy to exercise for a few weeks to tired, depressed, anxious, and obsessively worrying for several weeks. I tend to change mood around my period. My most difficult symptom is getting very frustrated and angry with myself--not thin enough, organized enough, etc. Maybe it's mixed episodes, I dont know. I can go from calm to throwing things and crying in about 10 seconds flat. My anger is always w/things rather than people. For example, the other day I was having trouble with my portable cd-player, and it took all the willpower I had not to get a baseball bat and smash it to bits. The ONLY reason I didn't do it was because that would be something one of my "crazy" relatives would do. This isn't normal. After years of dreading it, I think I'm finally ready to accept a bipolar diagnosis if it means the right medicine can help me get on w/life. I appreciate any advice on a first-line treatment.
poster:detroitpistons
thread:647515
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060525/msgs/648853.html