Posted by missliz on July 21, 2002, at 2:01:40
In reply to Re: Doc not prescribing by DSM.. is this weird?, posted by oracle on July 18, 2002, at 11:09:22
If you don't feel like you are communicating with this MD, tell him so. If he's at all competent he'll be glad to clear the air. That said, depakote gets skipped over a lot now because it'll make you gigantic. Nuerontin and Trileptal are labeled for epilepsy, but I promise they arer every bit as much "real mood stabilizers" as depakote, which is an epilepsy drug appropriated fpr psych as well. Maybe the doc is trying to spare you a gain of sixty pounds or so.
I understand the enraged monster thing- have all the t shirts. Did you tell the pdoc this? He needs to know about it. It may be a drug reaction, and it may be that you have irritable mania while the drugs are trying to kick in. You wouldn't be getting the stuff if your brains weren't kind of scrambled and you weren't yourself. Psych drugs can take up to eight weeks to work and you may feel very different down the line. We all get neurotic about eating unknown drugs, it's frightening.
Do you trust your doctor? You have to decide this. The medications you listed are a totally reasonable combination and have minimal side effects as psych drugs go. Trust me, a lot of the new medications are easier to live with. If you never take depakote you haven't missed a thing, exept the fat and stupid effect. Call the guy about the rage, today, but remember you have to give these drugs time to rewire and heal up stuff.Miss Liz
Incidently, ADs do not nessasarily cause rapid cycling. Lotta BP II's do great on an AD and mood stabilizer. Untreated or undertreated BP illness can deteriorate into rapid cycling over time, and it takes more time to calm it down once the illness is treated appropriately.
poster:missliz
thread:112730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113125.html