Posted by Ritch on May 13, 2005, at 10:06:51
In reply to Trileptal trial for bipolar depression..., posted by SLS on May 13, 2005, at 9:30:58
> I am being treated for bipolar depression. I recently added Trileptal to my drug cocktail to see if it would act to promote an antidepressant response. I do not experience mania or mixed states or rapid cycling.
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> I have been taking Trileptal for just over two weeks at 600mg. I didn't like the way I was feeling on it, but I thought it was tolerable if the stuff would actually work. I experienced a flattening of affect and amotivation. I also experienced fatigue and weakness. I became cognitively slowed. I felt pretty yucky. It was a sort of malaise.
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> Yesterday, my doctor asked that I reduce the dosage of Trileptal back down to between 300-450mg in an attempt to "clean it up". He probably would have had me discontinue it if I weren't determined to give it a full trial. Overall, Trileptal seems to have made things worse, not better.
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> Any comments?
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> - Scott
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>The cognitive blunting and flattening that Trileptal (and others) can cause is really annoying. I had some serious blunting even at 225mg/day. If I ever add Tegretol again (i.e.), I would only want to take it at night for sleep. Sometimes the "blunting" effect gets mistaken as a pseudo-depression while other symptoms of depression get better. When I was off all meds and in a serious depressive episode and restarted lithium.. yeah the cognition worsened, but I definitely felt a sense of relief when the other symptoms began to lift and go away--- especially the negative ruminations--- those can get really bad.
poster:Ritch
thread:497259
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050510/msgs/497271.html