Posted by anxiety_free on December 26, 2004, at 2:39:54
In reply to mood-stablizers?, posted by MM on December 25, 2004, at 20:40:44
Hey! I'm schizoaffective, so I have some experience with these drugs. What's your problem(s) with trileptal? I'm just asking b/c, while lithium prevents suicide, its not the best in terms of antidepressive action or side-effects amongst the mood-stabilizers. Klonopin helped my agitation/anxiety immensely (I now take BuSpar, which also works quite well). Have you tried an atypical antipsychotic? Most all of them are approved for straight up mania, and they're being used off-labael all over the bipolar spectrum, with good results. And of course, there's the prozac+zyprexa combo (symbyax) to think about, but I personally hate prozac and zyprexa. What's your dose of trileptal? If I were your shrink (run now), based on what you've said, I'd up the trileptal, add 1-2mgs Klonopin daily to control the agitation, and start a multi-tasking AD in a few weeks (maybe Remeron, 30mgs). I'd also rx something like trazadone for sleep management and gabatril or neurontin to boost the klonopin, as needed. Since you don't do mania/hyomania much, you might want to stick with the friendlier mood-stabilizers....trileptal and lamictal are strong but have a better side-effect profile than lithium. Klonopin, unfortunately, can worsen depression, so you might want to limit its use as a mood-stabilizer; if it helps, stay on for a few months...if you still needed a benzo, then something like Xanax XR could be introduced in place of Klonopin. Good luck!
poster:anxiety_free
thread:434151
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041223/msgs/434199.html