Posted by linkadge on June 3, 2006, at 0:59:21
In reply to Re: What Do You Think Of All the New Types of Bipolar?, posted by deuce224 on June 2, 2006, at 22:54:07
Just because a mood stabilizer works in a depressive disorder, doesn't mean that one has bipolar disorder.
For instance, there is new research showing that certain unipolar disorder may be associated with low levels of inhibitory gabaergic neurotransmission, and perhaps overactive glutamate, and PKC and such. Many mood stabilizers can modulate gaba and glutamate, and may help depression in this manner.
But calling you bipolar gives people the impression that you have manic episodes which may not be true.
The 5-ht1b autoreceptors are supposedly overactive in depression, leading to a decrease in serotonin release. Lithium blocks this inhibitory autoreceptor, leading to increased serotonin release. This effect may be completely independant of its antimanic effect.
From another point of view, many mood disorders may have a common link being a abnormal stress responce. You raise cortisol, and one person may become very suicidal, another may become psychotic. So, some of these agents may be helping mood disorders by a common mechanism on the HPA axis.
Depakote can downregulate corticosteroid receptors, and modulate PKC, which could theoretically be of use in unipolar too.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:651955
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060530/msgs/652189.html