Posted by 3 Beer Effect on April 27, 2002, at 9:05:05
In reply to Thanks 3 Beers, more..., posted by rainbowlight on April 27, 2002, at 0:04:40
I'm not sure since everyone is different & you are also taking Lamictal & Bipolar is a complicated disorder. From my own experience 50 mg made me sleepy (would basically knock me out for a few hours) and didn't work for me as an anti-depressant. I was on no other meds at the time & I stopped taking it after 3 months.
The next time I took 100 mg, and after 3 weeks everything was wonderful, I was actually happy, it was the most effective anti-depressant I had ever taken, but after a few months I couldn't sleep at night at all, sometime for 3 days at a time, which snowballed into a self-destructive manic switch/episode.
I don't even have Bipolar disorder, just Depression & ADD, but even a normal person can have a "drug induced mania" from a drug (e.g. methamphetamine, crack cocaine would probably make anyone manic). Most people don't have manic switches from Zoloft, I think that is a relatively rare side effect (2-3%), but I wouldn't take a chance on higher dose Zoloft (75+ mg) since you have Bipolar & are predisposed to a much higher rate of manic switch of anti-depressants.
Since you take Lamictal that complicates things since it is supposed to be a mood stabilizer, so it may prevent Zoloft mania even at higher doses. You would probably be safe with 50 mg, just have yourself & your husband look out for any signs of mania. Many doctors criticized the makers of Zoloft since that starting dose of 50 mg was too low, often ineffective & not equal in efficacy to the starting dose of Prozac 20 mg.
It might be better to stay at either your current Zoloft dose or perhaps 50 mg with extra caution & just use the Lamictal as an anti-depressant by upping (titrating max 25 mg 1-2 weeks at a time) the dose if you aren't having a response to it, it is supposed to be an effective one at doses of 150 mg & higher although it takes longer than most other anti-depressants to work.
One thing to remember is not to self medicate with SAM-E. Bipolars should never ever take SAM-E since its rate of inducing mania is ridiculously high, much higher than the SSRIs.
poster:3 Beer Effect
thread:104181
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020425/msgs/104286.html