Posted by JohnX2 on June 2, 2002, at 13:49:47
In reply to Re: I'm scared to death of Tegretol! Help!, posted by 2sense on June 2, 2002, at 5:34:13
> The doc who put me on the outrageous amount of Wellbutrin does recognize that Tegretol undose what the Wellbutrin is doing in your system, so you really aren't on that amount -- but there is NO chart. I finally put a call in to the neurologist who wrote the tegretol and he is out until Monday -- even though I don't plan on returning to him -- until I get a 'regular' neurologist (as the psych doc won't do anything to change something he didn't write and neither will my regular doctor <-- and he could -- that ticked me off) I thought I'd give it a go.
>
> When you went on the Topamax (I thought I read a post you went off of it and on to Serazone (but you were taking it for other reasons) you had a number of side effects. Did your psych doc start you at a very low dose? I was reading a doc FAQ forum thing I found and the dose one starts at seems (statistically -- ha ha ha) to correlate with the side effects -- I don't know. I did get confirmation from the DMV that they recognize it was a provoked seizure due to clonazepam cold turkey and sleep deprivation so my records clear and I can drive again -- what gets me is they reference this official notice I got -- wich I never did. Anyway the clonazepam AND the carbamazepine (both supposedly mood stabilizers) aren't stabilizing my mood ... could it be it doesn't need stabilizing -- and it is situational?
>
> That is something I wish to open to all. Biochemical whatevers that need pharmeceutical treatments ARE REAL -- ARE REAL -- and they ebb and flow with the circumstances in our lives (BUT here is my question -- what came first the chicken or the egg -- does that make sense?)
>
> Anyway -- thanks John a lot
>
> SueHi Sue,
My doc did put me on a really low dose of Top to start with, I don't remember the
dose, maybe it was 25mg? The side effects were none, so we quickly bumped it to
100 mg (but I don't remember exactly how quickly). At 100 mg, the side effects were
none, and I felt it was relieving my facial pain. So at my next office visit, we bumped
it to 400 mg. To be honest, I don't remember how quickly it occured, but it was within the
span of 2-4 weeks. I tolerated the medicine much better than most patients and could
quickly titrate up the dose. After a while, for whatever reason, I found that the medicine
was making me hypomanic and a bit agitated/angry (at 1st we thought it was from tapering Klonopin).
I was mostly taking topamax to help with the pain. But the hypomania/agitation was bad enough
to prompt me to switch to serzone, which was better for sleep and doesn't trigger hypomania
for me, although I became a bit more depressed :-(.As far as the mood stabilizers go, hmmm.
Lets see for depression, there is exogenous and endogenous
depression. Endogenous is caused by an inner biological
imbalance. Exogenous is more of a situational depression
(something in your life is going awry). Sometimes an
exogenous depression can set off an endogenous depression
for some with depression genetics. Or a depression may just
crop up out of the blue for no reason. For someone without
depression genetics, a situational depression (exogenous)
will usually resolve when the situation "resolves".So I think this can be analogous for mood swings and mood
stabilizers. People with bipolar may have "endogenous" mood
swings, i.e. mood swings not related to life events. But,
If you have things going on in your life that are good and bad
while you are also medicating with mood stabilizers, it seems reasonable
that you may have mood swings. But hopefully the mood swings
should be within the bounds of what is "normal" for you when
you are healthy. I'm not sure if your bipolar dx is accurate, you would know better.
If you are just having seizures, then mood swings may not
be related to the neurological disorder. Also, it may be hard
to quantify what the "range" of normal moods are sometimes.
For someone is who is bipolar I (more severe bipolar), who
is put on stabilizers, they will probably notice a substantial
narrowing in mood patterns. For Bipolar II (a softer form),
the mood stabilizers tend to more subtlely dampen the mood
swings. I guess it is possible that a mood stabilizer may
make someone who has no issue at all to feel "flat", but
everyone's body is different. I take Lamictal, and this medicine
does not make my moods go into a range that is outside of normal.
Some people who are put on medicines like Lithium
say their moods feel very "flat", "constrained". It's very individual.Best Regards,
John
poster:JohnX2
thread:90240
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020602/msgs/108443.html