Posted by Nickengland on August 2, 2005, at 13:48:41
In reply to second opinion, posted by cockeyed on August 1, 2005, at 23:33:58
Best thing I would suggest is coming to terms that Vodka is a depressant drug in itself....Although obviously it provides short-term relief to problems, longterm its not going to help the medication work, its probably going to increase the side effects and possibly make the whole condition worse...
>So, any drug solutions.
The best start if your bipolar would be beginning with a mood stabiliser. Be it lithium or anticonvulsant.
As for the "latest drugs" The general feeling within psychiatry is that these are the best ones to try first or first-line.
Lithium - (gold standard)
Sodium Valproate (depakote)
Carbamazepine (Tegretol)
They are considered the main 'big 3' Ironically they're the oldest of the 'latest' but still the best place to start (and hopefully finish)
Afterwards you have..
Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal)
Lamotrigine (lamictal)
Topiramate (Topamax)
Plenty to choose from and even after that you have antipsychotics. (I have little knowledge of those) but i've tried all the above.
Sounds a wise idea getting a second opinion - If your bipolar the last thing you want to be taking sometimes is an anti depressant. (i noticed your on prozac) this could be why your going up and down all the time. Plus I know for sure how bad those depression are....and so I came to the conclusion, 'what goes up'...must eventually 'come back down' - i.e depression.
I'm not sure what tranxene is?...but I'm pretty sure prozac and neurontin isn't going to do anything for bipolar...prozac could well be making it worse.
poster:Nickengland
thread:536587
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050728/msgs/536726.html