Posted by gazo on April 7, 2007, at 19:25:40
In reply to Mood stabilizers? Dysthymia? Cyclothymia?, posted by peddidle on April 7, 2007, at 13:50:25
if you have been on anti-depressents for a while without having any mania or hypomania it's unlikely you are bipolar. AD's will flip a BP into a hypo or manic state without a mood stabilizer. But your pdoc should answer that.
as far as mood stabilizers go, most do not have toxic side effects at all. Lithium is the one with the therapeutic and toxic ranges pretty close to each other. That happens to be one I won't take, for that reason.
There are plenty of others out there. If you are dysthymic, or cyclothymic I would think you'd get a lot from lamictal (generic lamotragine). It has AD properties and not much by the way of side effects. The only bad thing is that you have to titrate up very slowly because there is a *rare* condition which appears as a rash and can be dangerous... but it is seriously rare.
Depakote, Epival for CNDS, requires blood tests periodically to test levels and liver function. Tegretol also.
as far as i know those are the top ones.. there are others though. i take lamictal, can't tolerate epival and tegretol didn't work for me.
try looking here:
http://psycheducation.org/depression/meds/moodstabilizers.htm
poster:gazo
thread:747891
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070407/msgs/747960.html