Posted by med_empowered on July 28, 2005, at 2:58:30
In reply to Re: Is TRILEPTAL activating or sedating » bipolarspectrum, posted by Phillipa on July 27, 2005, at 22:42:31
I personally found it sedating. Its something you need to be kinda careful with in dosing...there aren't really any severe side effects (except photosensitivity and occasional sub-normal sodium blood levels), but the cognitive/psychological effects can be pretty bad if the dose is escalated excessively. When I took 1,200mgs, I had fewer problems with hypomania, mania, and anxiety; however, I also experienced medication-induced depression, apathy, and fatigue. 600-900mgs/daily is ideal for me, although some people apparently respond to less and some people require more (I think the usual max is 1800mgs/day, but I'm not entirely sure about that.) The GOOD thing about Trileptal was that, at ideal doses (600-900mgs), I still felt "human"--occasional mood-swings, mild hypomania, but nothing serious-- but had considerable control over the more severe ups and downs of bipolar disorder. Still, though, after a while I found the cognitive side effects just too much to accept. In contrast, I found Depakote to be mind-numbing and the atypical neuroleptics left me with akathisia, termor, and "neuroleptic induced dysphoria".
poster:med_empowered
thread:534509
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050723/msgs/534647.html