Posted by cache-monkey on May 27, 2005, at 16:22:33
In reply to Re: Depakote ER Question-Input Needed Please » cache-monkey, posted by theo on May 27, 2005, at 14:19:00
Yesterday was my last day at 250. At each dose reduction (from a peak of 1000) I felt a little less depressed. *Possibly* a bit of anxiety that I didn't realize was missing crept back in going down from 500 to 250. But I think that was more due to some stressful stuff going in my life.
I didn't like Lamictal at all. It ended up being really activating for me and precipitated an actual panic attack, which was a new experience for me. I have no experience with Topamax.
I really feel like I'd benefit from an anti-depressant. Since, without meds, I don't think I've experienced clinical hypomania. Mostly it's reactive depression/anxiety and a lot of dysthymia.
But the problem is that after an episode of hypomania on Celexa+Wellbutrin a few years ago, I can't go on an antidepressant unopposed.
My next plan is to try the atypical APs (possibly with low-dose Lithium). The first one I'm trying is Seroquel. I'm hoping I can get up to a therapeutic dose there without getting too sedated. I'm really hip on that idea due to the recent BOLDER study on Seroquel monotherapy for bipolar depression (in which they included BP II folks).
I sure with this process was quicker, though. I feel like I've been on the med-go-round for a while now with only a little overall improvement to show for it. (And that's mostly from therapy.)
BTW, Ritch mentioned this, but if you want to stick with the Depakote, you can go up in smaller increments using either the normal-release version or the "sprinkles" (which have some ER properties).
I'll definitely be interested to hear how things progress for you. Good luck!
Best,
cache-monkey> Are you off Depakote ER now? I'm soft BPII if anything, so this was a stretch just to see how I would respond to it. Lamictal isn't very consistant and Topamax actually was similar to Depakote but 2x worse.
poster:cache-monkey
thread:503404
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050527/msgs/503763.html