Posted by med_empowered on March 10, 2005, at 0:40:24
In reply to Re: More Hallucinations: When will this end!- med, posted by D minor on March 9, 2005, at 23:22:10
hey! You don't sound like the typical "psychotic patient," in the sense that you seem to know when you are and are not hallucinating, and you also seem to have hallucinations without a terribly developed delusional system that supports them and makes them "real". You're not "crazy" by any stretch. Anyway, with regards to mood-stabilizers...when you're talking BP II, prescribing habits differ wildly. That said, Lithium seems to be a favorite, given the long history of use and all the data that's been collected on it. Usually, BP II involves lower doses of Lithium than BP I, but this isn't always the case. In addition, everything else that's RX'd for BP I is RX'd for BP II--lamictal, tegretol, trileptal, depakote, anti-psychotics-- with the primary difference being that docs generally don't need to resort to "extraordinary measures" (i.e., hospitalization, high-dose anti-psychotics, high-dose Lithium, etc.) with BP II. 600mgs of Seroquel is quite a bit...what exactly is it being RX'd for? I was once BP II, but after hallucinations popped up, the dx was changed to BP I or BP NOS. Since I hate anti-psychotics I refuse to take them, so my hallucinations are controlled by better mood-management...basically, as long as my Trileptal dose is high enough to prevent a mixed-episode and low enough so as not to contribute to depression, things are pretty good. I also take adderall (ADHD, but also helps with depression), anti-depressants (these change regularly), anti-anxiety med(s) (again, subject to change), and the occasional sleeping pill (helps with overall stability...I usually only take if I've been without sleep for a day or two). Anyway, long story short, I've found that using meds to help me avoid severe mood-swings effectively ends any psychosis problems, which in turn helps eliminate the "need" for anti-psychotics. Therapy also helps, as does self-help. Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:468853
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050308/msgs/469082.html