Posted by oona on June 3, 2002, at 0:03:51
In reply to Re: rediagnosis: bipolar II » bonnie, posted by JohnX2 on June 2, 2002, at 19:44:32
Bonnie:
I agree with John but also wanted to add that the insurance and major medical providers may also add to the pot here.In order to get approval for more visits to your pdoc and if you were referred by your GP to monitor your medication, then you have to be on some sort of regime that requires close follow up i.e. bipolar II and the new meds. I may be wrong but it makes sense. Some insurance companies only "OK" two visits at a time and then the pdoc has to ask for more to follow up medication changes and as you can see from this board, every one has different reactions to different meds.
This is just me. I do not trust the docs much.
I guess the one positive is just to find the meds that works for you then proceed with therapy if needed.
oona
PS: I have also been previously diagnosed with depression (zoloft)
> > hi. after two years of being diagnosed as depression (medicated with zoloft), ive been rediagnosed as bipolar II (to take lamictal and some neurontin now as im experiencing a lot of anxiety about...stuff). in speaking with other people about this, ive found that a fair number of folks seem to have been rediagnosed in this way recently. what do you all think: is this for real? is this some sort of doctor-inspired trend? im just wary that docs are finding well, not everyone's responding to depressive meds so let's try this next diagnosis. thanks.
>
> I think this has partially occured.
>
> I think part of what has happened has to do with the
> introduction of the new medicines:
>
> - Lamictal (a mood stabilizer with antidepressant properties and no sexual side effects).
> - atypical APs Zyprexa,Geodon,etc. (Quick acting medicines that can treat anxiety,depression,bipolar,psychosis).
> - Neurontin (a tolerable non addictive anti-anxiety medicine, previously classified mainly as bipolar).
>
> These medicines all can be used very effectively strictly to treat
> unipolar depression. They have in many cases advantages over the
> older SSRIs, etc in terms of patient complience, etc. This may lead
> to greater efficacy and the illusion of less instability.
>
> Also these medicines are anticonvulsants (clasically viewed as bipolar
> meds) and APs (classically viewed for schizophrenia and now bipolar psychosis),
> so there may be a disassociation from an indication for depression usage.
>
> Just my take.
>
> John
poster:oona
thread:108402
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020602/msgs/108502.html