Posted by grapebubblegum on March 25, 2001, at 20:54:39
In reply to Re: Topamax Experiences: Long Term Use, posted by phillybob on March 25, 2001, at 17:20:23
I guess this thread should have its own website, it is so long. Forgive me for not reading every post, but I was fascinated by the quote you posted, Phillybob (hey, I have a brother Bob in Philly but I don't think you are him) about differentiating between bipolar and plain old depression. To make it short (and to recap what I wrote in another thread):
My dad was a card-carrying bipolar for many years, hospitalized several times and treated last I heard with Tegretol among other meds. My mom has some sort of personality disorder involving controlling others and has had alcoholism problems. Now, I myself have been diagnosed with depression with or without panic disorder over the last 15 years (I'm 35, but the panic attacks started around age 10 or 12.) I have never felt "depressed" but I can see that a lot of symptoms of depression are there when I am not treated with SSRI's and the klonopin that I take as needed (rarely) for panic attacks. My son, though, who is only 5 has been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. His pdoc admits that he went in large part on family history in making that diagnosis. Zyprexa was started and it made great improvements in my son but the weight he put on in one month was alarming. He was switched to topomax and has done PHENOMENALLY well, like he is a new person and I couldn't be happier about that. My question: Although I fail out on the traditional "mania" tests, should I re-consider my usual ill-fitting "depression" diagnosis and see if maybe topomax might work for me? My very sharp pdoc suggested trying whatever works well on my son. We ruled out the zyprexa early because of the weight-gain effect. I am having trouble understanding the difference between depression and bipolar disorder. I understand the manic component should be there in bipolar... but is that a hard and fast rule? Does the depression in bipolar people differ from the "typical" depression symptoms? Mine has always been atypical anyway, e.g. oversleeping rather than insomnia.
poster:grapebubblegum
thread:50878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010319/msgs/57523.html