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Re: When are benzos justified? -- UPDATE II

Posted by detroitpistons on February 1, 2006, at 10:26:55

In reply to Re: When are benzos justified? -- UPDATE, posted by detroitpistons on January 11, 2006, at 20:57:04

I have another update...On my next doctor visit, he diagnosed me as bipolar II. We had a fairly long discussion about my past and my current symptoms, and he said I may be rapid cycling. To me, the best way to describe it would be a mixed state with rapid cycling, but that could be redundant, depending on symantics.

I'm up to 50 mg of Lamictal now, and he's having me go down on the Effexor. Right now, I'm down from 225 mg to 187.5, and tomorrow I will go down to 150.

I have to admit, I am still trying to sort out this diagnosis, because this is all new to me...I was inclined to think that this current mixed state, which is completely new to me, is just caused by the Effexor. I have been moody and irritable in the past, along with just having a sort of cyclical nature to my moods, but I can't say that I ever remember really being euphorically hypomanic. If I was, it was very short lived.

Then I read the following passage from psycheducation.org:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:L0perCxdsMgJ:www.psycheducation.org/depression/03_treatment_app.html+mixed+episode+with+rapid+cycling+kindling+psycheducation&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

"Bipolar II seems to get worse with time in many people....As the illness gets worse, medications that seemed to have helped a person in the past don’t seem to "work" anymore. Antidepressants start to cause mixed state symptoms (can’t sleep, anxious, can’t concentrate, irritable — as well as depressed) and rapid cycling, where at first they were actually very helpful."

This is EXACTLY what happened with Effexor. Furthermore, in an example provided above this passage, Dr. Phelps introduces this "kindling effect." The man in the example had at least two episodes of depression prior to his first manic or hypomanic episode, which occured at the age of 27. I am 27. This could explain why it took so long for these bipolar mixed state symptoms that have never occurred before.

Therefore, my previous thinking that my symptoms are simply med induced could be flawed...Rather than Effexor causing bipolar symptoms, my current situation (reaction to meds) may be diagnostic of bipolar disorder. In other words, meds simply brought this underlying condition to light, rather than causing the symptoms (based on the quote above).

Any thoughs?


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poster:detroitpistons thread:594786
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060129/msgs/605133.html