Posted by S.D. on December 30, 2000, at 23:04:33
In reply to Re: Bipolar type that cycles betw norm. and depressed?, posted by Noa on December 30, 2000, at 19:44:19
Hi Noa, it's very nice to "hear" from you except for the fact that your still being around probably means you still are suffering.
I've always appreciated your information, empathy and sense of humor.> Yes, I read one abstract in which Akiskal defined this as Bipolar III. It is one way of looking at double depression.
>
> For some people with double depression, mood stabilizers like lithium, depakote, lamictal, etc., do help.
>
> I'll see if I can scrape up that abstract info....Thanks much for the tip about mood stabilizers helping some people with double depression. I find that especially intriguing since, though I don't know of any relatives with bipolar, my brother and father *have* had seizures and some of the mood stabilizers are also "AEDs" (anti-epilepsy drugs).
I will follow up on that via medline, and thanks in advance for any of that abstract info if you can scrape it up (but I'll probably be able to find the same ones on medline, so don't go to any effort about it).
I guess it's the old story of letting the medication determine the diagnosis ("if mood stabilizers helped, it must have been bipolar").
The funny thing about that is that a diagnosis arrived at this way is still arbitrary because med. labels like "mood stabilizer" (essentially "anti-bipolar med") are arbitrary, as shown by the example that some of them have additional labels like "AED" ( = anti-convulsant, some of which are "anxiolytics"...)peace and health,
S.D.
poster:S.D.
thread:50592
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001130/msgs/50623.html