Posted by Jack Smith on March 10, 2003, at 12:11:51
In reply to Do we *all* need mood stabilizers w/ a..d.'s? , posted by jay on March 10, 2003, at 9:22:15
Jay,
I think you are making the mistake of taking people's reactions on this board as the "typical" reactions to AD's. Most people on this board react to AD's in an atypical manner. It is sometimes hard to remember that most who come to this board and post for long terms have failed many different types of treatments. If you look through the archives, you will read from many people who no longer post here, I think it is safe to assume that most of those people have found an effective long-term treatment, many without mood stabilizers.
I know there are impressive studies saying that Lithium is statistically superior for suppressing actual suicides BUT we all know that there are so many things that go into this that it is hard to conclude that Lithium in general is better than any other agent at suppressing suicide.
To answer your question: do we "all" need mood stabilizers? The answer to this question is obvious: NO. Everyone has a unique reaction to these agents and making blanket statements/predictions about what we "all" need is worthless. I am not bipolar. Yet, my pdoc tried Lithium augmentation for a pooping out AD (this is a conventional way to deal with AD poop out). After just a few days of Lithium, I felt more depressed than ever and within a day of removing it I felt noticably better. If anything, Lithium for me pushed me more towards suicidal thinking. I also know of someone who was mistakenly dx'd as "Bipolar II" (which I personally believe is not a real diagnosis) and went through a year of different mood stabilizers. That year was the most hellish year of his life. After he returned to SSRI monotherapy, he experienced a robust remission. What may work for you probably won't work for many others.
JACK
poster:Jack Smith
thread:207699
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030310/msgs/207737.html