Posted by Annie on November 8, 1999, at 9:44:01
In reply to Re: atypical depression -how typical?, posted by Scott L. Schofield on November 8, 1999, at 5:39:12
My "current" psychiatrist is one of the proponents of the theory that there is no such thing as atypical depression. If a person exhibits the atypical subset of symptoms, like me, they are really bipolar whether or not they have ever experienced a manic or hypomanic episode. My irritability is manic, buying things I don't need is manic (hmmm ok maybe), researching my depression online is manic, assertiveness is manic. So now , I have a dx of mixed state bipolar. This explains (to him) why I have not noticed the manic episodes. I was depressed when I had them! This explains my refractory deprssion. I have been on Neurontin for a month. It's still early , but my depression is so severe right now, I'm not sure I will be able to survive long enough to "prove" this is not helping. You know, I just don't care anymore. Let him call it whatever he wants. I'm dying a little bit more every day and soon there won't be enough left to matter. When I am totally gone it won't matter what my dx was.
Annie> > Some researchers are grouping the unipolar depressions with bipolar illness--because the "atypical" version is akin to the depressive states of those with bipolar.
>
> Thanks for your more than uneducated reply.
>
> I hope these researchers are put in their place as quickly as possible. There is no question that the epidemiology of unipolar versus bipolar depression is manifestly very different. If the response rates to mood-stablizers turns out to be different between the two, their conceptualization would be extremely counterproductive.
>
> - Scott
poster:Annie
thread:4802
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991108/msgs/14803.html