Posted by SLS on October 30, 2013, at 7:57:42
In reply to can topamax stabilize one's mood?, posted by chinaboy on October 29, 2013, at 22:33:00
> i have a friend who cannot tolerate any of the established mood stabilizers. Lithium, Lamotrigine, etc,etc all made her angry and irritated.(why???)
> Now she is considering topamax. But reading from wikipedia seems to leave us an impression that it does not do the trick.
> what do you guys think of topamax when it comes to mood stabilization?
> I wanna hear your opinions!
>I have seen Topamax work very well for a female with a bipolar II disorder, mixed-state hypomania. She was extremely angry and irritable, and able to act on her thoughts because she had increased energy. The initial target dosage was 200 mg/day. She was maintained on 100 mg/day. I tried Topamax once myself. I started at 12.5 mg/day and moved up very slowly. Doing this is supposed to prevent the emergence of cognitive side effects and memory impairments. It had no adverse effects on me at all. The only real concern is not to develop metabolic acidosis. This is acomplished by routine blood tests to assay bicarbonate levels.
This is the dosage titration schedule I used to prevent cognitive side effects.
Morning Evening
Week 1 12.5 mg
Week 2 12.5 mg 12.5 mg
Week 3 25 mg 25 mg
Week 4 50 mg 50 mg
Week 5 75 mg 75 mg
Week 6 100 mg 100 mg
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1053361
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20131025/msgs/1053371.html