Posted by wcfrench on October 22, 2002, at 20:13:14
In reply to Re: DO YOU HAVE TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION LYN, posted by Lyn on October 22, 2002, at 15:23:09
Good luck with the study Lyn, I hope it works out. It seems that as our situation becomes more sticky we need to look outside the box a bit more. Supplements, forums, recommendations. I'd love to see if Lamictal could possibly help me. I read a bit from Dr. Ivan Goldberg claiming that it has been shown to relieve unipolar depression. There are several Q&As I will quote, but only the most relevant ones:
4. How does lamotrigine differ from other mood stabilizing drugs?
Lamotrigine differs from other mood stabilizing drugs in two major ways:
1. Lamotrigine's frequent effectiveness for patients who have failed to respond to antidepressants or mood stabilizers;
2. Lamotrigine's relatively benign side-effect profile.
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5. What, if anything, uniquely distinguishes lamotrigine from carbamazepine and valproate?Lamotrigine has had been successful in controlling rapid cycling and mixed bipolar states in people who have not received adequate relief from lithium. carbamazepine and/or valproate. It also appears that lamotrigine has significantly more antidepressant potency than either carbamazepine or valproate.
Lamotrigine has recently been reported to be a useful treatrment for some people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or borderline personality disorder (BPD).
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6. People with what sorts of psychisatric disorders are candidates for treatment with lamotrigine?It is too early to be very specific about which mood disorders are most likely to respond to treatment with lamotrigine. There are few published reports on lamotrigine's use in psychiatry. Patients with hard-to-treat bipolar syndromes and with schizoaffective disorder have been treated more often than patients with "treatment-resistant" unipolar disorders. Some people with such hard to treat unipolar depressions have been treated with good results. Some patients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, a disorder that many psychiatrists believe is a varient of Bipolar Disorder, have responded to treatment with lamotrigine. Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and with Deopersonalization Disorder have also rersponded well to lamotrigine therapy.
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7. Is lamotrigine useful for the treatment of acute depressed, manic and mixed states, and can it also be used to prevent future episodes of mania and/or depression?The initial use of lamotrigine was to treat people with depressed, manic and mixed states that did not respond to existing medications. Some patients are now being maintained on lamotrigine on a long term basis in an attempt to prevent future episodes. The effectiveness of lamotrigine as a long-term prophylactic agent is currently being established.
Hope this helps! See you guys later.
-Charlie
poster:wcfrench
thread:123911
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021019/msgs/124769.html