Posted by linkadge on June 3, 2006, at 20:01:04
In reply to Re: What Do You Think Of All the New Types of Bipolar? » linkadge, posted by Phillipa on June 3, 2006, at 19:33:38
I've got nothing against doctors using lithium or perhaps other anticonvulstants to try and treat certain mood disorders.
I don't like to see unipolar patients using antipsychotics unless there are no other options.
I guess the big problem with labling unipolar people as bipolar based on poor responce to antidepressants, is that it may worsen future treatment.
Ie, say I don't respond to current antidepressants, but do get mild benifit from a mood stabilizer. Now, in the future an antidepressant with different mechnism comes along (which may have cured me) but because I am incorrectly labled as bipolar, my doctor will be less inclined to try that drug.
For instance, if a patient responded to selegeline, that doesn't mean we should say they have parkinson's disease and not depression, because down the road, when the mechanisms of the illnesses are better understood, the correct diagnosis is what still may help the most.
Linkadge
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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060530/msgs/652512.html