Posted by cache-monkey on October 9, 2006, at 14:49:41
My body doesn't seem to be cut out for 3 out of the 4 maniline moodstabilizers. After my kidneys freaked out on Lithium, my liver and allergic system on Tegretol, I just tried Lamictal. Even though I'd been on it up to 50 in the past with nothing, I had a pretty strong allergic response at just 5 mg/day. A lot of above-the-neck itching, and more worrisomely, in-the-mucous-membranes itching/burning.
So this leaves me staring at Depakote. Now, I've been on that before and I ended up more depressed (I'm BP II to begin) and a little congitively dulled. (Tegretol, and even more so Lamictal, did the opposite.) Maybe my experience will be different this time, especially starting at a very low dose.
But I think I'm going to need to sandwich my mood between Depakote and some sort of AD. I'm especially interested in stories from people who've been similarly down in mood when doing Depakote monotherapy. Has anyone one had experience on Depakote+AD combos? Did it end up working?
Also, is there a preferred AD to try with Depakote?
I'm waffling about Wellbutrin, which is often cited as the least-likely to cause a switch. The best I've felt in my life, which was really only borderline-hypomanic, was on a combo of Celexa and Wellbutrin. (2nd best: recent Lamictal, 3rd best: Tegretol) But both Wellbutrin alone or Lexapro + Lithium made me more anxious. (Especially the Wellbutrin monotherapy.) I'm wondering if the Depakote would take away that edge...
Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Best,
cache-monkey
poster:cache-monkey
thread:693360
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061003/msgs/693360.html