Posted by victoria on September 22, 1999, at 4:33:31
In reply to Re: Would like to know exactly what Bipolar Disorder , posted by Corike on September 16, 1999, at 16:07:05
> > Sister has been diagnosed with Bipolar I and Bipolar II what exactly is this. The doctor also says that she has a mild split personality disorder. Can someone help me understand these???
>
> Hi Shelia,
>
> My sister was diagnosed about 3 years ago with bipolar disorder. I found some
> very useful websites just by searching with the key word bipolar. I forgot which
> ones they were but you should do a query on the topic on the web.
> How are you and your sister doing? My sister is still struggling and it is very hard to
> watch here being unable to help. I also found a nice book for family members of
> people with mental problems. If you're interested I can ask my parents what the title
> was (after reading it I gave it to them).
>
> Good luck. You can always mail me if you'd like to talk to someone in a similar
> position,
> Corike.Hi, thought I might be able to help. I'm a psychiatric nurse.
Bipolar disorder used to be called "manic depression" because there are periods when the individual is very energetic, and periods when the person is very lethargic or depressed. We have now discovered that Bipolar disorder is a disease of radical highs and lows, with Bipolar II indicating that the individual is now in the low, or depressed phase of the illness. Antidepressants are risky at this time, especially the ones that can induce mania once more, these are Nefazadone, Zoloft, Prozac. So the best thing to do is rely on Lithium, which has been very sucessful, though we really don't know why. So if an antidepressant is used along with Lithium, it is better to chose one that is NOT is the "SSRI" family (mentioned above) and stay with the tricyclics, like Elavil, Doxepin, Trazadone, Imipramine. Does this help?
poster:victoria
thread:11582
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990914/msgs/11883.html