Posted by linkadge on July 19, 2008, at 18:13:55
In reply to Re: Want to stop meds ... should I?, posted by BGB on July 19, 2008, at 14:08:03
Theres also something called rebound mania. If you take a mood stabilizer for long enough you can experience mania from the rapid discontinuation of the medication.
Some people take that as evidence that they do infact have bipolar disorder, but its important to note that rebound mania is *not* restricted to bipolar patients.
For instance, there are many case reports of lithium discontinuation causing rebound mania in patients who were not bipolar! (I.e. the patients were using lithium for depression agumentation!)
The point is that when you are on drugs, you are on drugs. If you discontinue any medication too quickly you can experience the homeostatic forces of your brain acting unrestrained. If you were on an anxiety drug, you can have rebound anxiety, if you were on a mood stabilizer you can experience instability etc. etc.
Heres another good example. Doctors know that if you come off anticonvulsants too quickly you can have a seizure - even if you're not using the drug for epilepsy. So, if you have a seizure coming off an anticonvulsant that you were using for migrane would you take that as evidence that you really do have epilepsy ?? Of course not.
Its really important to compare and contrast the episodes of drug induced behavior to previous behaviors. If the episode you had coming off depakote was very similar to past epsisodes you had while drug free, then this would be an indication that you are bipolar. If the episode you had coming off depakote was very much unlike any epsiode you have had previously, then you may want to rethink the notion that it is proof of bipolar.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:840049
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080718/msgs/840856.html