Posted by Tomatheus on August 11, 2012, at 21:15:41
In reply to Your take - theories..., posted by sheilac on August 11, 2012, at 19:57:53
SheilaC,
I would say that although people with bipolar disorder tend to respond favorably to mood stabilizers (especially when they're taken at therapeutic doses), having a bad response to one or several mood stabilizers shouldn't necessarily mean that you don't have the disorder. I'm not a medical professional, but as I see it, if you meet the diagnostic criteria for a disorder, then you should be diagnosed with it, regardless as to whether or not you respond well to the medications that others with the disorder generally respond well to. Although it may be unusual to respond best to medication doses that are considered to be sub therapeutic, people metabolize medications at different rates, and some may be more sensitive to the effects of medications than others. So, even though responding best to mood stabilizers at low doses may be outside of the norm, perhaps the so-called therapeutic doses aren't for you if you have difficulty tolerating the medications at those doses.
I think that the reasons as to why some individuals have difficulties tolerating higher doses of certain medications are most likely complex and varied, and even though I'll be interested in seeing what theories people here offer as to why you seem to experience irritability and depression at higher doses of some mood stabilizers, I think that any ideas that end up being put forth will most likely be educated guesses at best. And the same applies to my ideas, which I can basically sum up by saying that responding best to low doses of mood stabilizers shouldn't (in my opinion) preclude you from having a bipolar diagnosis. Perhaps you're different from most people with bipolar disorder, but if you meet the criteria for the disorder, then I think that a bipolar diagnosis would be fitting.
Tomatheus
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Treatments: Abilify, 6 supplements, & counseling
tomatheus.blogspot.com
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1022986
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120803/msgs/1023083.html