Posted by bleauberry on May 17, 2009, at 19:11:40
In reply to Clinical testing for mood swings?, posted by ricker on May 16, 2009, at 12:04:00
I only know of one test that partially does what you are looking for.
When my cortisol was low from 7am to 5pm everyday, none of my meds worked. None. But, all of them worked like magic from 6pm to bedtime, and I hated to go to bed because I knew when I woke up it would start all over. Depressed all day, fairly decent in the evening. What the heck? These mood swings were not altered by mood stabilizers or antidepressants, and actually worsened by antipsychotics.
Sometimes the mood swings came at different times and were lighter or heavier. But generally there was kind of a pattern to it. It wasn't completely random.
When I saw my 24 hour cortisol curve, it all of a sudden made clear sense. I could see my moods on a graph.
Adrenal Stress Index test by Diagnos-Techs. You will measure saliva cortisol 4 times in a day. It will also measure your DHEA, progesterone, gluten intolerance, DHEA-to-cortisol balance, and some immune system markers. But the primary purpose is to see what your cortisol is doing throughout the day and see how it coorelates with mood swings. Then you will know what meds to take to either squash it down or raise it up, whichever is needed.
Hormones lead to mood swings, no doubt about it. I found out that my psych meds worked perfectly fine when my cortisol was in the normal range, a little bit manic if slightly above normal, and did not work at all when it was low.
Other than that I don't know of any mood swing tests. People don't know much about the cortisol stuff, but I can say from personal experience, and others from other specialty forums, that it is actually a huge issue.
Food intolerances can cause mood swings up or down. You could try elimination diets or special testing to see if what you are eating has anything to do with mood swings. Keep a diary of everything you put in your mouth, what time, and look for patterns.
poster:bleauberry
thread:896076
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090515/msgs/896326.html