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Re: Which better 4 cycling - LAMICTAL or DEPAKOTE? » Janelle

Posted by JohnX2 on March 7, 2002, at 22:50:49

In reply to Which better 4 cycling - LAMICTAL or DEPAKOTE?, posted by Janelle on March 7, 2002, at 22:18:48


Here are my thoughts (people should read your above posts to get the background).
These are just my opinions.

- I may be concerned about your current pdoc.

Any pdoc who asks a patient to stop Effexor 150 mg
cold turkey is not in my favor.
Other things bother me too.
Unless there is some miscommunication here.
Maybe you should call your pdoc and double check
on this one.

- I think you should consider remaining on the Effexor 150 mg
if you feel it is helping. Without a mood stabilizer cycling
is going to be a problem, given a good bipolar diagnosis.
If depression, lack of energy, etc are still a problem, you
still have room with Effexor to bump the dose as high as 300 mg.

- Mood Stabilizers, Past performance is indicative
of future success.

Lamictal: You took it and (sorta) liked it. You can restart it.

What dose did you take? The therapeutic range is 100-300+ mg.
If your old dose was less than 300 mg, its possible you weren't
getting the full benefit of the medicine (more mood stabilization
and anti-depressant effect). You already have a good feeler for
the tolerability of the medicine. Downside to restarting the
medicine is the amount of time it takes to get the dose up to
the therapeutic range. I take this medicine for bipolar II.
It really wipes out the lows for me (bad depressions). Your
results may vary.

Depakote: Upside is that you can start this at a strong dose
fairly quickly. This may also allow you to tinker with the
Effexor dosing faster too. Downside is no experience with the
medicine. Depakote is a very successful mood stabilizer.
Other people can comment on the effects of cycling.
The medicine works really fast, so if you don't like it
you can quit it, so I wouldn't freak about side effects, you
can always go back to Lamictal.

Lithium: A lot of people have remarked that it is a very
fast acting anti-depressant adjunctive medication. It may
help to boost the Effexor very rapidly. I have little
experience. I would lean on other peoples experience. I
wouldn't worry about safety/toxity.

Zyprexa/Seroquel: I dunno. Sounds like Zyprexa 5 mg was
helping your anxiety sleep.

My motto is if it aint broke don't fix it.

Please note your impression of cycling may be seriously
skewed by the fact that you are taking an anti-depressant
without a primary mood stabilizer. You may not be
cycling as bad without the AD.

Anyways, most importantly I hope you will establish
a good rapport with a physician.

best wishes,
John


> I'm having serious doubts about starting Lithium for my cycling, and the other two major meds I've heard of for this are Lamictal (I've tried it and it seemed to help) and Depakote (my original pdoc had suggested it but when I read about the possible hair loss side effect I freaked out and that's when she gave me Lamictal).
>
> I'd appreciate any feedback on which of these might be considered more effective for cycling, although I do realize that responses vary widely from person to person, but perhaps there is a consensus about Lamictal or Depakote? Thanks.


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