Posted by Kar on April 1, 2002, at 11:47:33
Hi Dr. Kramer- thanks for being here!
I'm taking part of one of my previous posts and pasting it here in hopes that you'd have some insights...For nearly all of the time since I was dx'ed Bipolar (approx 16 years; I'm 32) I've been on combos of mood stabilizers and AD's of one sort or another. Got off Nardil the summer before last because I had sinus probs and couldn't treat them effectively while on it. Since then we've tried combo after combo but always with an AD. Not much success- outta work since June. Haven't had a good few weeks in a row since I don't know when...
Ok, so now I've gotten off the Effexor and Wellbutrin (totally off since 2 weeks ago). I'm on 1000 mg Tegretol XR and .075 mg Synthroid. This is day 10 of feeling fine. Just normal- fine. My doc wants to wait on the Nardil and add another mood stabilizer when I "dip" (I've been on Lithium, Depakote, Neurontin, Topamax, Lamictal but all in combination with other AD's)..we've discussed the whole "AD's cause more cycling" philosophy many times but have never been able to be on "just" mood stabilizers for any length of time...Doc feels that the short periods of time that I've been off AD's (such as when I went off the Celexa and crashed) weren't sufficient judges of what my mood could be like off AD's.
An aside- of all the years on Tegretol XR I haven't had one incident of antidepressant-induced mania..it's always ben the depression that's been the problem.
Any thoughts?Thanks so much in advance,
Kar
poster:Kar
thread:101292
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/101292.html