Posted by med_empowered on August 16, 2006, at 12:39:45
In reply to Please help... Bi-Polar Son..., posted by justscared on August 16, 2006, at 12:11:40
zoloft is an ssri type antidepressant--it can help anxiety and depression, and its kind of like prozac in that it mostly works on serotonin.
Risperdal is an antipsychotic, one of the newer ones known as "atypicals". It is primarily used for schizophrenia and hallucinations, but can be used for bipolar.
Depakote is an anticonvulsant drug used for epilepsy and other seizure disorders. It is called a "mood stabilizer" b/c it seems to reduce mania and depression, although its better at reducing mania (anti-manic agent) than depression.
Personally, I think your doc should try **Just** a mood stabilizer (like depakote, trileptal, tegretol, lithium, lamictal, keppra, etc.) instead of using an antipsychotic. Antipsychotics (also known as "neuroleptics") have a number of risks associated with them that your doc needs to discuss with you. Most bipolar people can do without an antipsychotic, and they are **not** considered "first line" (first drug of choice) treatments for bipolar or other mood disorders.
poster:med_empowered
thread:677083
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060810/msgs/677092.html