Posted by Elizabeth on May 6, 2002, at 23:31:48
In reply to Thanks Elizabeth!, posted by lizbeth on May 5, 2002, at 9:45:08
> Thanks Elizabeth for your reply--that was very nice of you to take the time to read the Product Insert.
Not at all -- I read up on the stuff before I started taking it. It was kind of new at the time, and I wanted to know how it differs from Tegretol.
> I'm an Elizabeth too, had to find a different board name because you beat me to it :)
Yes, it's a good thing for me that I got here early on; there have been a few other Elizabeths on PB since I've been around who could have laid claim to the name if I hadn't already got it. (I seem to recall that one of them chose a confusing handle -- maybe it was "elizabeth," in all-lowercase?)
> For whatever reason, the Prozac seems to interact with the Trileptal for me!!! I did some experiments last week, and even adding 10 mg of the Prozac would induce some pretty bad headaches, naseua, etc.
Had you ever tried taking the same amount of Prozac (10 mg more than what you're taking now, that is) *without* the Trileptal?
> Of course, without the Prozac in my system I got depressed, so going in to see doc this week. It'll either be Zoloft or Effexor XR.
Good luck with whichever you choose.
> If you don't mind me asking, are you BiPolar?
No, I'm not. I take the Trileptal for seizure prophylaxis.
It's true that some bipolar people can't take antidepressants, but others need them and can use them safely as long as they have adequate mood stabilization too.
> Do you taking any other psychotropic drugs?
Effexor XR 375 mg/day; Buprenex 0.3 mg (1 mL) thrice a day; and Ambien and Xanax as-needed.
> There's been some controversy (namely, at psycheducation.org) about whether BPII's who have depression as well should be taking AD's.
By definition, bipolar II disorder includes major depression. But anyway, like I said, this is an individual thing. You just have to find out what works for you. In general, if the bipolar diagnosis is pretty well established, you want to get the mania/cycling under control with mood stabilizers before you start adding antidepressants. Some bipolar people find that mood stabilizers alone are enough to control both the [hypo]manic and depressed phases, but others really need an antidepressant too.
> I go back and forth--I understand their logic, but I'm rapid cycling mixed episode and have never hit true "mania", so not concerned with switching per se. I'm always switching!!!
Mixed states and rapid-cycling can be more dangerous than straight mania or hypomania; I seem to recall reading somewhere that mixed episodes are supposed to be predictive of suicide attempts, for example. It's important to get that stuff under control.
best,
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:104533
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105372.html