Posted by Ritch on February 21, 2005, at 9:31:49
In reply to Mitch: Titrating your mood stablizer?, posted by smith562 on February 21, 2005, at 8:56:31
> Hey Mitch,
>
> I am sorry, but I may have asked this before. What objective criteria do you use to titrate your depakote/MS? I have been using sleep ... normal being 8 hours and I titrate my lithium according (for example ... if I can't fall asleep I will take an extra 150mgs of lithium). Thank you!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Smith
>
> PS I have been have some difficulty with social phobia .... have you experience that with BPII and panic disorder? What helps?Hi Smith, "objective criteria".. I don't use sleep for increases. The best indicator of needing to temporarily up the dose (to 375mg or rarely 500mg for a few days)is "racey mind" combined with irritability/intolerance feelings. I can get a benign "scatterbrained" experience (where my mood isn't up or down), that's just like ADHD (maybe it is), and it helps that *somewhat*, but the big help is the racey head with anger feeling. I think that's THE core symptom that Depakote directly works on that benefits me, it doesn't do much for anything else though. Social anx.? Yes, that seems to go with my mood cycling. If I'm in a depressive phase I get very avoidant and panicky. When I'm high, I'm talking to strangers in the store. The best thing (while depressed) to help that has been Neurontin, but pdoc doesn't like it.. I can do without it at this time of year, but when BP depressions kick.. it seems to really work. It *may* be working by *inducing* hypomania, but I'm not altogether sure of that...
poster:Ritch
thread:461209
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050217/msgs/461222.html