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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 19 of 19. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 15:49:38
Is Lamictal known to increase anxiety and/or obsessiveness? Ever since I started taking it in January (still on a low 25-50 mg dose) I've been extremely obsessive over my health to the point of severe agitation and frustration. Is this the Lamictal? I'm also on Celexa 40 mg day, and thinking it might be time to quit this after three or more years.
I am soooooo fed up with the medicines so far. I feel like my life has been in /decline/ since I was diagnosed bipolar I and put on new meds. I'm so tempted to just quit everything and get back to regular, single SSRI.
Posted by linkadge on May 6, 2004, at 16:33:19
In reply to Lamictal insanity, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 15:49:38
I don't know about lamictal, but Celexa made me *very* obsessed about my health. My heart, fatty foods, exercise, the whole works.
Linkadge
Posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 16:47:43
In reply to Re: Lamictal insanity, posted by linkadge on May 6, 2004, at 16:33:19
Maybe it is the Celexa. Celexa + alcohol was always a winning combination for me! Alas, since I quit drinking everything's been haywire...
Thanks for your post.
Posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 16:48:24
In reply to Sorry to break up the party, but who is chemist?, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 16:47:43
My browser inserted the wrong subject... my apologies!
Posted by griswald on May 6, 2004, at 19:24:39
In reply to Lamictal insanity, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 15:49:38
Lamictal makes me extremely obsessive. I get one nervous thought in my head and then think about it over and over. It also made me frustrated.
Posted by harryp on May 6, 2004, at 19:51:08
In reply to Lamictal insanity, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 15:49:38
Hi,
Are you sure you're bipolar I (full blown manic episodes)? I've noticed that pdocs love to give that diagnosis, even with spotty evidence--although it's usually "Bipolar II". I ask because Bipolar I seems to usually require a more powerful mood stabilizer like Depakote or lithium. How did you do on the single SSRI? Did it set off a manic episode?
I took Lamictal for a while. It made me dull, but definitely not obsessive. It might be the Celexa.
Posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 22:18:44
In reply to Re: Lamictal insanity » AMD, posted by harryp on May 6, 2004, at 19:51:08
I really don't think I'm bipolar I, but the doctor insists. It's rather annoying! I think I'm borderline (that is, between I and II, not borderline personality disorder), and they classified me bipolar I to be "safe," but the medications have wrecked havoc with my mental states.
Celexa has worked very well for four years. I did drink a lot, probably to self-medicate the 'highs' (it made me feel a little 'calmer' the next day), but I was never depressed or delusional. Except my drinking started to get out of hand. Next thing I know, they tell me "go to AA" (good advice) and "oh, take all these new meds" (so far, really bad advice).
I tried Lithium. It turned me into a nimwit with no social abilities, dry mouth and acne, and complete anhedonia.
Switched to Lamictal, low dose. 25 mg lifted my mood a bit, but 50 mg made me feel spaced out. I've been on 25 mg for three months, and every week I find find something new to obsess about, which gets me depressed, can't think ... so I will have one or two weeks of clear-headedness, and a hellish two or three days when I just want to sleep. Total cyclothymia. This never happened on Celexa (and alcohol). I've stopped the alcohol ... not sure if it'd happen on just the Celexa alone. I suspect now Lamictal is causing this, partially.
Went to pdoc, said, "hey I'm obsessing," so they up the dose of Lamictal and prescribe Zyprexa. I take Zyprexa one night and now, a week later, I /still/ have latent side-effects (dry mouth, finally subsiding), really breaking out, and haven't been able to think clearly for over a week. Very, very frustrating. Thinking about dropping the dose of Lamictal back to 25 mg to avoid its side effects, and I am /not/ taking Zyprexa ever again.
(All the while I've continued to take Celexa.)
In fact, I'm seeing my pdoc tomorrow, and for once I'm going to dictate the allowed course of treatment: no AP's, no mood stablizers for now. If they want to switch my AD, or take me off an AD, OK. But we need to do one thing at a time, in a controlled fashion. Not up and add, add and up, drop this, start that in one- or two-week rotations.
I'm just worried all this stuff has permanently damaged by cognitive function and abilities. It's been so long since I felt normal (not drugged) that I don't even know if I'll recognize it when I see it.
(Ah, I miss the days when I thought depression was simple: first major depression, thought "this is sooooo horrible!," took Celexa, it worked, I figured, "I'm cured for life!" Oy! Happiness in ignorance! Little did I know the can of worms I may have been opening...)
Posted by harryp on May 6, 2004, at 22:58:53
In reply to Lamictal madness?, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 22:18:44
I really could relate to your post, I particularly like your plan:
> In fact, I'm seeing my pdoc tomorrow, and for once I'm going to dictate the allowed course of treatment: no AP's, no mood stablizers for now. If they want to switch my AD, or take me off an AD, OK. But we need to do one thing at a time, in a controlled fashion. Not up and add, add and up, drop this, start that in one- or two-week rotations.
Ha! Ha! That's EXACTLY what I had to do! (I was given a bogus Bipolar II diagnosis even though I had no episodes of hypomania). I spent some time in a horrible lobotimized state while my pdoc (who's really a well-meaning guy) optimistically gave me whatever vile AP or mood stabilizer the drug rep had brought in that day.
> I'm just worried all this stuff has permanently damaged by cognitive function and abilities. It's been so long since I felt normal (not drugged) that I don't even know if I'll recognize it when I see it.
>Don't worry, AP's are not known for being great for the brain, but short term use shouldn't do you any harm.
It sounds like you are really bipolar II. I wouldn't give a diagnosis of bipolar I unless there was truly insane mania involved--say, flying to the Vatican to give the Pope a secret plan for world peace, thinking you're an agent of God, spending your whole savings on a ridiculous business venture, etc.
I have heard that MAOI's can be effective in Bipolar II, particularly when combined with a mild MS like lamictal (which you might not even need). Parnate, in my experience and from what I have read, is one of the only AD's that doesn't mess with your cognition or creative abilities.
Posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 0:34:44
In reply to Oops!, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 16:48:24
> My browser inserted the wrong subject... my apologies!
hi AMD....you want it, you got it. i am a 34 year-old white male living in the US in Texas. i hold a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. my degrees encompass applied mathematics, aqueous chemical hydrogeoloy/toxicology, and theoretical chemical physics. my graduate degrees are from the University of Texas, Austin (geology ranked 6th for my M.A. - which was later turned into an M.S., but that's another story; and chemistry/physics at 13th and 11th in the u.s.). i was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the department of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco for one year (consistantly top 5 in medical schools). i was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University (and lecturer) in the department of chemistry, but taught solid-state physics/chemistry, general chemistry, and advanced chemistry for materials science engineers. i accepted a faculty position (and an adjunct) at two branches of the University of Colorado, and got out of academia recently. i have a 2+ year (non-compensatory) collaboration with a privately-held pharmaceutical company that is interested in neurodegerative diseases, and co-wrote a $2,000,000 (yes, that's 2 million) grant that was funded to develop high-level theoretical computational drug discovery with aforementioned pharmaceutical company and my (second) post-doc adviser at Princeton. my work with UCSF is in the area of biophysics of motor proteins. i have 10 publications (Phys. Rev. E, J. Chem. Phys., Chem Phys. Lett., Biophys. J., Science), of which i am first author on 9. the 11th is in J. Med. Chem. and is submitted. i have -to date - been invited to talk about my work on 17 occasions. i also have 17 poster sessions to my name, 11 of which i am first author. i have won 2 Dreyfus Foundation Fellowships in addition to my fellowships at UCSF and PU (which were internal). i peer-review for biophys. j., review for the theoretical and computational chemistry panel for NSF, and have reviewed grant proposals for the American Chemical Society Petroleum Resreach Fund. and i co-own/co-founded two start-ups (S-corporations), one of which does GIS/optimization, and the other is in the general area of scientific visualization and some other stuff that is proprietary. the first start-up has grossed about $1,000,000/year since its inception in 1999; the other is recently formed, and we are licensing software and intellectual proerty as i write this. i have over 15 years experience in writing C, FORTRAN, C++ and C and Bourne-shell scripts, and write code for massively parallel architectures (IBM SP/2,3; Cray T3-E; SGI Origin x000 series), vector platforms (e.g. Cray J-90), and have built and maintained 2 Beowulf clusters. i am old-school UNIX and all my machines (at home) are running LINUX, with kernels customized by yours truly. currently have over 250,000 wall-clock hours on several NPACI sites for studying motor proteins, and on the side, i provide (when needed and pro bono) consultation to non-profit groups involved with environmental issues. and i was not born into wealth, paid for my undergraduate education at an expensive school in the northeast (i'll leave the googlers to find that out), race bicycles (cat II then track, kilo on a Cinelli), play bass and guitar, and was a quasi-professional baker for over 5 years. i do not own a car, am a democrat, and most importantly, suffer from a few - if not more - of the maladies mentioned here. if you request a C.V., please provide an email address and i will send it to you....hope this clears things up, even a little.....oh, yes, i'm bipolar (latest diagnosis, and the jury is out), heterosexual, do not have any religious preference, am 5 ft. 9 inches tall, and weigh about 160 lbs. in my shorts. brown hair, brown eyes. i enjoy all music except crap - i mean rap - and am currently single. and i do number theory, cryptography, and numerical methods (linear algebra) in my spare time. i am a vegan for health reasons. any other questions? all the best, chemist
Posted by T_R_D on May 7, 2004, at 9:57:46
In reply to okay, i'll tell you » AMD, posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 0:34:44
Hey chemist...loved your post...for a scientist you seem quite funny!
Just kidding! I am simply jealous since I wish I had YOUR brain!
Karen
Posted by T_R_D on May 7, 2004, at 10:03:01
In reply to Lamictal madness?, posted by AMD on May 6, 2004, at 22:18:44
Hey AMD, you are right on track about making adjustments to one med at a time. That is really the only responsible and reliable way to find out what side effects and effects in general they have on your bean.
I know Celexa made me manic as heck. In fact, I think all SSRIs have that impact. It just took me 5 years to finally figure out what was exactly wrong!
I know how you feel about having "just" depression in the beginning. I always said, "Well, at least I'm not BIPOLAR!" Ha ha. Joke's on me. Nature has a cruel sense of irony.
Best of luck sorting out which horsey is causing the problems on the med-go-round.
Keep me/us posted!
KarenPS - for the record, I'm on 100mg of Lamictal (just ramped up from 50mg yesterday), 150 Wellbutrin and 75mg of Effexor.
Posted by Emme on May 7, 2004, at 10:45:06
In reply to okay, i'll tell you » AMD, posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 0:34:44
Hi. Got yourself quite a CV there, huh? :) Actually, would you mind e-mailing me or letting me e-mail you? I'm trying to sort out/orient my career and I like to hear about how people navigate career development. You took an interesting turn when you slid from geochem/hydro over into theoretical chemical physics. ...
Emme
Posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 11:58:13
In reply to Re: okay, i'll tell you, posted by T_R_D on May 7, 2004, at 9:57:46
> Hey chemist...loved your post...for a scientist you seem quite funny!
>
> Just kidding! I am simply jealous since I wish I had YOUR brain!
>
> Karenhi karen, this brain is no better or worse than yours or anyone else's! plus, many days i'd gladly swap mine out for a loaner, maybe we could trade our noggins for a while? :) all the best, chemist
Posted by AMD on May 7, 2004, at 14:07:07
In reply to okay, i'll tell you » AMD, posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 0:34:44
> any other questions?
Only one. Have you ever been diagnosed a narcissist? ;)
Interestingly, a lot of your interests gel with mine. One in particular: I also spend some of my "spare" time doing mathematics, but my interests in this area lean toward set theory and logic. (I quote "spare" because in the context of my life, this word takes on a non-traditional meaning!)
Feel free to email a q.v. to
Posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 15:27:10
In reply to Re: okay, i'll tell you » chemist, posted by AMD on May 7, 2004, at 14:07:07
> > any other questions?
>
> Only one. Have you ever been diagnosed a narcissist? ;)
>
> Interestingly, a lot of your interests gel with mine. One in particular: I also spend some of my "spare" time doing mathematics, but my interests in this area lean toward set theory and logic. (I quote "spare" because in the context of my life, this word takes on a non-traditional meaning!)
>
> Feel free to email a q.v. to
>
> anoneyemous@yahoo.com
>
>
i assume you will accept a non-disclosure agreement......best, chemist
>
Posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 15:41:15
In reply to I'd like to hear more » chemist, posted by Emme on May 7, 2004, at 10:45:06
message sent......chemist
Posted by AMD on May 7, 2004, at 15:52:47
In reply to Re: okay, i'll tell you » AMD, posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 15:27:10
I will absolutely honor your anonymity, and assume the same in return.
Regards,
Posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 15:57:39
In reply to q.v. » chemist, posted by AMD on May 7, 2004, at 15:52:47
> I will absolutely honor your anonymity, and assume the same in return.
>
> Regards,deal. check your inbox..chemist
Posted by Dr. Bob on May 8, 2004, at 17:16:04
In reply to Re: q.v. » AMD, posted by chemist on May 7, 2004, at 15:57:39
This is the end of the thread.
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