Posted by cache-monkey on January 5, 2005, at 20:24:05
In reply to Antidepressants and Bipolar Disorder, posted by ed_uk on January 3, 2005, at 20:28:53
Hi Ed,
Let me caveat this by saying that I suspect a mild form of bipolar for myself, something like cyclothymia. The diagnosis is not clear, though, to either my therapist or pdoc.
That being said...
Celexa: (in combination with Wellbutrin) seems to have set off a hypomania, although mild. (I think that this was partially just truly feeling non-depressed. But I made some kind of "yeah this feels good, so just go ahead and do it" sorts of decisions that I've made during other "up" periods. Again, not clear if it's hypomania or the poor judgement ability of youth.) My general impression is that SSRIs are more likely than TCAs to induce mania. But I have absolutely no basis on which to back up that assertion.Wellbutrin, Serzone, Serzone+BuSpar, Buspar mono: nothing in the manic departnent. Wellbutrin was energizing and made me more driven, possibly obsessive. Serzone just flat out made me worse, especially with respect to my anxiety, which is the predominant symptom for me. BuSpar seems to have helped with certain aspects of my anxiety, but might also be making others worse.
Just started Lamictal (along with low-dose 7.5 mg/day BuSpar in the background) and upping from 25 to 50 mg seemed to make me hypomanic for a day, and then really tired and anxious. And then, finally, I had a full-blown panic attack. Granted there's some other pretty stressful stuff going on for me right now. But, the Lamictal was really the destabilizing factor. Since going back down to 25 mg, I'm just stuck with my "usual" problems.
HTH,
cache-monkey> To everyone with bipolar disorder...........
>
> In your own personal experience.........
>
> Which ADs *have not* induced mania, hypomania, mixed affective states or rapid cycling?
>
> Which ADs *have* induced mania, hypomania, mixed episodes or rapid cycling?
>
>
> PS. What do you think of the common pdoc attitude that TCAs are particularly likely to present problems in this respect? ....and that SSRIs and Wellbutrin are preferable. This doesn't seem particularly consistent with babblers' experiences. YMMV.
poster:cache-monkey
thread:437371
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050103/msgs/438275.html