Posted by Ritch on January 19, 2005, at 0:08:33
In reply to Re: Colin Wallace » Ritch, posted by Ron Hill on January 18, 2005, at 13:30:01
> Mitch, did you really hear from Colin recently, or do you have me confused with my good buddy Colin? The most recent post I've seen from Colin was back in October:
> It's no big deal if you've got us mixed up; we can write off the name recall glitch to the Depakote.
YEP, got your post mixed up with Colin's!
>
> I feel bad that I didn't get back to thank you for your response to my former post regarding Adderall. I've had a very "interesting" response to the addition of 5 mg of Adderall. At some point I'll tell you all about it. My one-year protest is over sometime in February.
>
> Thank you Mitch!
You're welcome. Stims DO have good utility with bipolar for the ADD/depressive dimensions, but watch out for panic.. that was my case. If you don't have comorbid panic troubles and you can respond to low dosages for limited periods....
>
> Hey in reference to your posts in a thread above, have you ever tried ginger on a prn basis to treat Trileptal induced nausa? I buy crystallized ginger at the grocery store in the bulk food section. It's a little spendie (about $7 per lb) but it does the trick on my rare bouts of nausa. YMMV.
I've heard about the ginger "trick" for Depakote nausea. Thanks for reminding me about that. It just seems weird that 300mg Trileptal gives me such nausea and 500mg Depakote doesn't. The PDR numbers for nausea are actually worse for Depakote! You see, that makes me worried that Trileptal and its associates being not such a nice fit for my particular chemistry. I didn't get serum sodium checked.. and if it was seriously dipping serum sodium that led to the nausea symptoms--I don't want to take it--BUT if *Tegretol* WOULDN'T do that AND give me better or as good benefits as Trileptal for the manic-mixed symptoms I would rather take the Tegretol than the Depakote that I take now BECAUSE I think my sleep quality would be better and it would be *less* depressogenic than the Dep. Just a theory now.
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> I love two things about Trileptal; it reels in my hypomania within minutes of taking a dose and I sleep like a baby on it. As you are well aware, good sound sleep is an excellent bipolar "medication".Yes, there is something weird about Depakote that I don't like regards sleep. It seems to *aggravate* sleep maintenance troubles I have. If I take a dose at bedtime it seems that it activates me and wakes me up just a few hours later and then I can't go back to sleep.. and then I DO go back to sleep right before I need to wake up- really irritating! This leaves me all foggy headed and tired all next day. SOOO I have tried taking it earlier in the evening and it has helped some but not enough. It is like a triphasic response... first I get sedated and might nap or nod off.. then there is an *activation* that happens 4-6 hrs in (while I am trying to sleep), then several hours of somnolence after that (the next morning-midday). I liked Trileptal or lithium because I could take a dose at bedtime and it would put me out right.
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> Unfortunately, Trileptal does not help my BPII atypical depression. In fact, it almost feels like it hinders me from cycling out of the depressive phase of my cycle. In other words, it kinda holds me in the depressive phase longer than I would have been without it. I notice this particularly at higher dosages. As a side note, I'm absolutely convinced that Depokote caused depression when I was on it years ago.
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>----- RonI get clearly depressed on Depakote if I take it during a depressive episode in doses exceeding 250mg/day. You know, here's something I've been wondering about a little: Effective antimanics are associated with effective PKC inhibition, but I think brain norepinephrine levels are reduced as some downstream consequence of this...and if they aren't corrected during a BP depression an antimanic might actually worsen it.. SO I've found that a low dose of a stim or a little Strattera or nortript. whatever seems to be the right thing to counteract the antimanic's depressogenic tendencies.. just thinking out loud a little.... Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:441138
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/444057.html