Posted by SLS on September 18, 2016, at 8:22:46
In reply to Re: Dysthymia » KarenRB53, posted by Horse on September 17, 2016, at 20:01:15
> Karen, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling bad. To me it sounds like a major depressive episode on top of dysthymia. Sometimes this is referred to as double depression, although I don't hear that term used often.
"Double-depression" is a term used as early as 1982. I don't see it used very much anymore. This might be because it doesn't exist as a formal diagnosis in the DSM. I have seen it in a good friend of mine. She experiences chronic dysthymia (minor depression) punctuated by episodes of severe depression. These episodes are triggered acutely when she is deprived of antidepressants or suffers a systemic infection. Her dysthymia is resistant to various treatments. For now, Abilify + Wellbutrin is helping. I try to encourage her to add Lamictal. She once felt better on Nardil + doxepin. She experienced complete remission on lithium monotherapy for quite a few years. A new doctor she began seeing took her off of lithium because he deemed her to be cured. Unfortunately, she relapsed 3 weeks later. When lithium was restarted, it didn't help at all. This might represent an example of "drug-induced drug-refractoriness". Robert Post posited this as a phenomenon with lithium in the early 1990s.
Wellbutrin + Lamictal + Abilify?
- 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:1092095
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160819/msgs/1092233.html