Posted by blueboy on July 19, 2008, at 9:06:57
In reply to Re: QQQssss » blueboy, posted by UGottaHaveHope on July 18, 2008, at 18:12:23
> Blueboy:
>
> Along with all the others, thanks so much for the feedback.
>
> I'm very interested to hear, and perhaps you have a link to where you may have already told it on here, on how the pdocs decided you were bipolar after years of being classified as depressed. That's very interesting, how long it took, and how they arrived at a such a drastic change, then what medicinal changes were made.
>I took about 20 or 30 different drugs over the course of decades (starting with a tricyclic in 1977), including tricyclics, SSRI's, SNRI's, antipsychotics, neurontin, and stuff I don't even know what it was. None of them seemed to help me, with the exception of Nardil, which I now believe put me into a state of continuous hypomania. I was much improved and could work, but my judgment was impaired and I lost a LARGE amount of money.
Some SSRI-type drugs really screwed me up (Wellbutrin, Effexor, Prozac), including seizures and catatonia.
My latest pdoc, who is pretty decent, was about to give up and was strongly recommending ECT. However, he also urged me to get a second opinion from a very prominent researcher associated with Emory University. This guy does not take patients but will see a few patients per week, for a 2+ hour appointment, to take a history and make a diagnosis. It was this doctor who diagnosed me as "definitely bipolar".
Prior to that, I had been diagnosed with "recurrent major depressive episodes" because my primary complaints were depressive in nature. This isn't unusual, by the way, because bipolar II patients frequently don't complain about their hypomanic episodes -- they feel "better than normal" and can work hard, etc.
The recommended treatment for Bipolar disorders and unipolar depression are very different. For BP, the starting point is "mood stabilizers" such as Lamictal (which I am now trying), depakote, lithium, etc. Apparently, BP patients often have bad experiences with SSRI's. I don't know whether or not to say SSRI's generally don't help BP patients. I have seen this said, but I have also seen a lot of Lamictal/SSRI cocktails talked about.
I really don't think anyone actually knows. Primary diagnoses seem to be a starting point. Then they just try different drugs/therapies to see if something works!
I also have "concurrent" OCD and anxiety (especially agoraphobia and social anxiety). Again, I think the system of diagnosis and treatment (e.g., DSM IV) is fairly rudimentary at this point, but it appears to be making progress.
poster:blueboy
thread:840383
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080718/msgs/840737.html