Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | List of forums | Search | FAQ

Re: TCA's and BPD » Chloe

Posted by Elizabeth on January 25, 2002, at 0:57:13

In reply to Re: TCA's and BPD » Elizabeth, posted by Chloe on January 23, 2002, at 18:33:04

> Could you explain in what way TCA's can make BPD worse? I had never heard of this.

I should have been more specific. The TCAs are definitely not a treatment of choice for BPD, simply because it's been pretty well established that they don't work very well. There have also been some studies and case reports suggesting that TCAs (amitriptyline in particular) can have "paradoxical" effects in depression associated with BPD, making patients feel worse rather than better. I'm out of town and don't have my books around, but I believe that TCAs can worsen symptoms such as self-destructiveness, paranoia, and hostility. Again, I think this may not apply to clomipramine.

There may be a relationship between BPD symptoms and mixed mania or hypomania in bipolar disorder. Tricyclics are thought to be more likely to trigger or exacerbate dysphoric (mixed) manic states than other ADs, and this may be why they make some borderline patients worse: because dysphoric mania is part of the problem.

Of course, people with BPD are a heterogeneous group, so it's hard to make general statements about them.

-elizabeth


Share
Tweet  

Thread

 

Post a new follow-up

Your message only Include above post


Notify the administrators

They will then review this post with the posting guidelines in mind.

To contact them about something other than this post, please use this form instead.

 

Start a new thread

 
Google
dr-bob.org www
Search options and examples
[amazon] for
in

This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | FAQ
Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Elizabeth thread:90799
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020124/msgs/91499.html