Posted by BarbaraCat on July 24, 2002, at 18:47:33
In reply to Re: Fish oil and children's ADD? Need advice. » Pogo, posted by Jonathon on July 24, 2002, at 16:51:15
Jonathan,
Yes, absolutely, Amen to that (er, maybe not Amen). I guess Dr. Amen is attempting to use all these labels to describe the differences he sees in his SPECT scans, but like you said, what if there are overlapping dysfunctions? The opposite ends of the classic bipolar/depression poles seem pretty straightforward. Major clinical depression usually means slowed down, dull empty apathetic sleep all day depressed symptoms. Classic bipolar symptoms are usually the books we read by famous people like Patty Duke, wild exhuberant creative madcap destructive frenzies. Schizophrenia in it's classic form is pretty straightforward. Things start blurring pretty badly as they move away from these clear-cut descriptions, be it bipolar, OCD, whatever.I don't care if they start naming roses after all these axes and subtypes (well, then again, maybe name weeds instead) as long as I'm getting meds that help me. But geez, all these years I've been getting SSRI's and come to find out that bipolar II's do terribly on them. Wish I'd known earlier but I didn't know I was bipolar and still don't. Wish I knew if a pstim or antipsychotic would work but sure don't want to mess around with something that serious if I don't need it. I just don't know and neither it seems does anyone else. Not that anyone is to blame, no, I don't really believe that. It all comes down to money and what the insurance companies are willing to pay. - Barbara
> barbcat
>
> I also share in this terrible frustration.
> Dr. Amen's statements cleared NOTHING up for me.
> He talked about how easy to distinguish between bipolar and ADD, BUT, what if you have ADD and depression BOTH but don't know what kind of depression you have---be it bipolar, major depression, etc. Then his distinction means nothing because you are STILL left with trying to figure out WHICH KIND OF DEPRESSION you would have.
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:112225
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113575.html