Posted by morgan miller on August 4, 2010, at 10:35:05
In reply to Re: Effective Treatments for Mania » cycling, posted by SLS on August 4, 2010, at 5:16:48
> > i must admit, it is very interesting you bring up bp2 though. if you do some searches on here, there's a thread about overlapping symptoms between adhd and bp2.
>
> Bipolar disorder often occurs comorbidly with ADD/ADHD.
>
> > growing up we (my family) knew i was hyperactive, but i never really had problems in class for my GPA was always near the 4.0 range.
>
> I don't know how to interpret this.
>
> Depakote or antipsychotic? 10 years ago, I would have easily chosen Depakote first. However, I now feel that most atypical antipsychotics are generally safe. I guess Risperdal would be the exception when used at dosages above 3mg. If you do decide upon trying Depakote, it is advisable to test for liver enzymes during the first 6 months. I think Depakote has become an overlooked drug.
>
>
> - ScottI agree with Scott that Depakote may help. You may only need as little as 500 mg. Do NOT buy into this b*llsh*t idea that you NEED to have Depakote blood levels at the therapeutic threshold in order for it to be a successful treatment. This is also the case with Lithium. I do think it is necessary to reach therapeutic blood serum levels when treating more sever acute mania, but for someone like you, sub clinically therapeutic levels may be enough to be effective.
I would actually try Depakote first, drop the Seroquel, and avoid Zyprexa(for now).It is possible that you may need to go higher on Depakote and reach the therapeutic serum level range in order for it to really work for you. If you try Depakote, just make sure you tell your doctor you want to try to take the lowest most effective dose possible, even if your blood levels are sub clinically therapeutic.
One cool thing about Depakote is that it promotes the production of progenitor stem cells-it's always nice to see the brighter sides of some of these meds that can sometimes get a bad name for causing side effects(another reason to try to stay on a lower dose since side effects can be dose dependent) like weight gain.
Morgan
poster:morgan miller
thread:956333
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100731/msgs/957166.html