Posted by JohnX2 on December 15, 2001, at 7:22:18
In reply to Unipolar vs. Bipolar, posted by spike4848 on December 14, 2001, at 20:50:34
Hi Spike,
Usually bipolars require a mood stabilizer
or low dose anti-psychotic to get a consistent
response. With just an anti-depressant things
can be erratic.What are your symptoms? Have you had panic
attacks? What were your "minimal" responses
to the other SSRIs,etc like?One of the more "in" choices for tricky to
treat bipolar depression is Lamictal, and it
is one of the few mood stabilizers also being
used to treat depression.Low doses of the anti-psychotics like zyprexa
can be augmented to SSRIs, etc to treat bipolar.
This is a more recent approach as people generally
have used anti-convulsants like Depakote,Tegetrol etc.Getting a good diagnosis of bipolar vs unipolar
is very important. Otherwise if you are bipolar
and not on a mood stabilizer or anti psychotic, then
the anti-depressant will likely cause erratic results.
Speaking directly from experience.-John
> Need advice. I am 30 yo male with depression and panic disorder. I had minimal response to tca's and ssri's, but good response to nardil. My father is bipolar and mother unipolar with panic.
>
> Is my failure to tca/ssri, response to nardil, family history an indicator that I am really soft bipolar? Am I making my condition worse by continuing nardil?
>
> Spike
poster:JohnX2
thread:86943
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011213/msgs/86965.html