Posted by barbaracat on March 21, 2005, at 14:45:38
In reply to Re: Benzos and other stuff » barbaracat, posted by cache-monkey on March 21, 2005, at 12:43:27
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> << Some recent articles state that 600-900mg is proving to be as effective and the current therapeutic window and dosages should be reevaluated. Perhaps your doctor is aware of these studies. >>
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> I'm not aware of these studies, and my doctor for sure doesn't know about them. (He claims that below a level of 0.6, Lithium will do nothing.) If you have any references, could you please pass them along?**I'll look for them. Some of them, as I recall, are from mags I receive in the mail. But I'll look. I'd like to pass them along to my new doc who thinks the therapeutic levels way but is willing to reconsider anything, given my highly unusual but effective experience with low dose Cymbalta. IN the meantime, there are quite a few references online referring to .4 as being the lower end of the window. Just do a search on lithium+"therapeutic range" or to that effect.
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> << Can you live with 'skirting the edge of hypomania', and find healthy lifestyles methods as enhancers to lithium's efficacy? >>
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> I might just have to. The whole thirst/dehydration/urination thing is really hard to live with right now.
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**How much Li are you taking?**But lithium can raise insulin levels (yet another reason to not bulk up on it) and I don't know how glucose affects this. >
> Interesting about the insulin. Again something I wasn't aware of. You really have done your research on this!
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**Jeez, seeking answers to what has been going on with me has become my raison d'etre. Once I get strong enough and reasonable well from fibromyalgia I hope I can apply what I've learned somehow. BTW, many ingredients interract with lithium. Caffeine, psyllium, ibuprofen. It's possible that something else you're taking could be raising the levels. This may come to light in a blood test (how often are you getting blood and urine tests? And YOU ARE getting thyroid panels, aren't you?). Did you recently increase the dose and started experiencing worse sx/s?As I recall, you were having a pretty smooth ride until hitting a certain point. Just my opinion, but if it were me and my bod, I'd go back to a level that was tolerable and live with it for a while to see how I was feeling overall, therapeutic window derived for the generic everyman be damned.
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poster:barbaracat
thread:470912
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/473655.html