Posted by Janelle on June 15, 2003, at 18:23:09
A pdoc who I did NOT care for kept insisting to me that SSRI's can induce hypomania or even full-blown mania and I did not believe him. He spouted it like the gospel and seemed very close-minded to anything to the contrary.
I was also skeptical because I had been on Paxil, an SSRI for MANY years with NO hypomania. Ironically, although I didn't recognize it at the time, I did exhibit hypomanic symptoms toward my last days on the med, before it pooped out and I had to taper off.
Since then, and it has been years, I've been on therapeutic doses of two different SRI's (I purposely left the other "S" out because one is not literally an SSRI) -- EffexorXR (an SNRI) and Celexa (SSRI) and BOTH of these meds induced big time hypomania and cycling in me.
The Celexa was worse! I went from being the angriest, most pissed off person, I would go off on anybody and everybody, overreact to minor things, etc. to crashing into depression where all I did was stay in bed because my body could not sustain the outpouring of adrenalin that must have accompanied the hypomania which lasted for days.
Anyway, I now have a different pdoc (thank goodness - the other one was also a cold fish and a jerk in personality) who lowered my Celexa by a lot, increased Depakote and we SEEM to be moving in the right direction.
That pdoc left the organization (figures, he was the BEST one I've ever had) and I hope the replacement will continue to work with me on the balance between SSRI's and mood stabilization. I'm afraid if I go off the Celexa (SSRI) altogether I will get depressed again. That's part of my diagnosis. I may have to ratchet up the Depakote a bit more.
I'm also on a low dose of Lithium which could be increased, but the pdocs all say that Depakote is the med of choice for the kind of moods and cycling I'm *blessed* (NOT!) with.
poster:Janelle
thread:234181
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030614/msgs/234181.html