Posted by S.D. on January 1, 2001, at 0:19:14
In reply to Re: Bipolar type that cycles betw norm. and depressed?, posted by Noa on December 30, 2000, at 19:44:19
> 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....I couldn't find anything at all on pubmed about effectiveness of mood stabilizers for double depression or dysthymia. And the only thing that mentioned "Bipolar III" didn't have an abstract available. So if you can scrape up that abstract info, I'd really appreciate it.
Otherwise, I can't yet see how I could have any kind of bipolar, because everything I've read seems to require at least hypomanic episodes to rule it in (or, putting the Dx aside, to justify 'mood stabilizers').
I did find an old psychobabble post that said"... Dr. Akiskal has stated that up to 50% of patients diagnosed as having dysthymia are, in fact, suffering from a ‘soft bipolar’ disorder and would thus benifit from treatment with mood stabilizers",
which is very similar to what you said. But I definitely didn't find the source of that statement.peace and health,
S.D.
poster:S.D.
thread:50592
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001231/msgs/50662.html