Syndicated from the Bipolar Blog
Sometimes, you may begin to wonder what’s worse—the depression and mania or the side effects from the medications used to control the depression and mania. In fact, one of the main reasons that people with bipolar disorder stop taking their medications is because they simply can no longer tolerate the negative side effects. And who can blame them? Nobody likes to gain 30 pounds, feel groggy all day, become forgetful, walk around feeling dizzy, shake, twitch, feel nauseous, or have an anxiety attack. Yet, all of these side effects and more are possible with one medication or another used to treat bipolar symptoms.
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Beverly
7:52 am on
December 27th, 2008I have been on various psychotropic drugs. All have their own set of side effects. Currently, I am on two of them….Lamictal and Klonopin.
For me, less drugs better off I am. I have been able to gain control over the bipolar disorder instead of it controlling me. That’s 75% of the battle…
Brandie
5:51 am on
January 27th, 2009What can I do about hair loss from Depakote? It’s the only medication that (sort of) works for me so my doctor won’t switch me to another, and I’m on as low a dose as possible. It’s really awful to be a balding woman. I don’t know what I can do about it.
Hi Brandie -
There have been some studies suggesting that Zinc supplementation may help reduce hair loss from depakote. You can try an over the counter zinc supplementation if your doctor approves – she may have thoughts about dosing the supplement as well.
Lauree
11:42 pm on
June 12th, 2009My brother has suffered from bipolar for years. He tried to kill himself three times in the past 20 years. He is currently recovering from his last big ‘meltdown’ and is being weaned off Lamicdal and seroquel and eventually adding Lexipro. I for one don’t think he’s headed in the right direction but won’t argue with his doctor yet. My question: where do the paranoic thoughts come from? Is that common side effects of one of his drugs? Is it a side effect of bipolar that maybe comes with age? It’s a new symptom in the last year.
Hi, Lauree–
The paranoia is part of bipolar for some people. When my wife is cycling, she experiences psychosis, which includes paranoia and hallucinations (visual and auditory). Most of the docs she’s seen have prescribed various atypical antipsychotics to control the mania and the psychosis which often accompanies it – meds like Seroquel, Abilify, Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Geodon, but most of these trigger weight gain, which she will not tolerate.
I’m no doctor, but I would think that if your brother’s doctor is withdrawing the Lamictal and Seroquel, some other mood stabilizer and/or antipsychotic would need to be in place to replace these. Lexapro is an SSRI antidepressant, which alone will do nothing to muffle the mania or psychosis and may even (without an anti-manic medication in place) worsen the mania and psychosis.
In short, I think your insticts are correct in questioning what the doctor is doing. Although you may not want to argue with the doctor at this point, asking questions never hurts.
Lauree
2:54 pm on
June 13th, 2009Thanks Joe. You affirmed what I was thinking. My only hope is that when I talked to my brother last (yesterday), he misspoke about the new meds the doctor was going to give him and that maybe he meant Zyprexa.
As far as the weight gain associated with that medication, I know first hand the very rapid weight gain caused by Zyprexa. I think at this point my brother would not care so much about the weight gain if he could just get his ‘old’ personality back. It’s so hard listening to a 54 year man cry in agony because he is so sad and feels like such a burden to his wife.
Again, I thank you for your response. I will pursue come kind of communication with his doctor. He (his doctor) is new to my brother’s case and I’m not sure how completely he was filled in by my brother and sister in law.
Agh! So frustrating!
bobbi
6:35 pm on
October 31st, 2009The side effects of the meds are working against me- I have to take 9 medications at bedtime! The interactions make the side effects worse! I work at crafts at home- My hands tremor so much that I can’t thread my sewing machine or put beads onto wire. I feel like a zombie most of the day, then its time to take my meds. Although I was on these meds for some time(5 months) when I stopped them if felt like I was back to normal, but now my doctor says I was hypomanic, which led to my depression and suicidal plans now. Plus all these meds are ASSUMED to work on this or that chemical- show me the blood test that says these chemicals are out of whack in my body and the follow up showing me that the chemical fixed it! I have diabeites- No meds, my sugars high, with meds, its in the normal range- why don’t they find lab tests that tell what chemicals are messed up in our brain, rather than just tweaking an old formuls, slapping on a new label the charging us an arm and a leg??
blanche
8:29 pm on
February 21st, 201024 lbs later on Seroquel, and self esteem in the toilet, stopped meds and resorted to alcohol. That certainly didn’t work. Back on meds but very depressed. I don’t know what the correct combo for my body to be, but I resent that the nature of the beast with these meds is trial and error.
Grrrr
citalopram worked when I had some major health anxiety and almost had a breakdown because my bipolar was in such a low state. I have been weening myself off of it for the past few months and it is frustrating and taking forever. I wish I could get this under control and take care of it more naturally.
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