Posted by indivmed on June 15, 2003, at 17:58:31
In reply to Efficacy of anti psychotics for BP2, posted by Maxime on June 15, 2003, at 15:44:48
Max--I'm also BP II--I tend to rapid cycle. Have you tried combinations of mood stabilizers? Using one mood stabilizer as an adjunct to another (i.e., neurontin which might work well for mixed states) at full dose might make a difference even if alone, they did nothing. One more thing--high-dose fish oil can also help greatly--you would need to take approximately 10 g but it DEFINITELY helps. Make sure that if you do this, you get pharmaceutical grade fish-oil...what you find in health food stores is loaded with impurities and not safe at these high doses.
I took Zyprexa and Risperidone and they flattened me out to the point that I felt more depressed--I tend to have a very strong, opinionated, humorous personality and on anti-psychotics, I don't feel like myself. I stopped taking them altogether and was finally put on Depakote which seems to help with the extent to which I "deviate from base-line." I did add on Neurontin for a while but stopped taking it due to cost.
You could also try taking an AD that has little potential to kick people into hypomania, mixed states, etc. An MAOI might do the trick--they are very safe if you follow the guidelines and are EXTREMELY effective--they get a bad reputation when in actuality, they are the most effective class of AD known. An MAOI could be taken with or without the AD, depending on how extreme your mixed states are--I tend to think "mixed states" is overdiagnosed...usually it's depression and some other issue like an anxiety disorder, ADD or OCD--have you been on anything other than mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics????
Rick
poster:indivmed
thread:234144
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030614/msgs/234170.html