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Bipolar Disorder
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Posted 3/7/2013 8:56 PM (GMT 0)
Hi. I post on the Crohn's forum, and I find them helpful for me. I know that the board says not to post about bipolar family members, but it sounded like that was supposed to be aimed at people complaining about their family member, and I am asking on behalf of my husband. My husband was just diagnosed with being Bipolar last week. I had suspected he was, but his PCP said that since he didn't go days without sleeping, that he wasn't bipolar and was just depressed. I got him to see a Psychologist and, after diagnosing him as bipolar, she gave him the option of Lithium or another medication (I wrote down the name but forgot where I put it!). The second medication is like Lithium, but works slower and might mess up his thyroid, if hat helps any of you identify it. He has started taking the Lithium, and he and I were just wondering how long it took to see a difference on Lithium (he was taking 1 pill this last week, and upped to 2 last night). And how successful you guys found it. Also, any blaring side effects you noticed on it would be a great heads up. My husband would post about this, but he is highly dyslexic, so his spelling is horrible and it makes him afraid to post on forums. Thanks for any help!
Posted 3/9/2013 9:57 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Mywowgirl, after reading your post I have just a couple suggestions, if your going to post for your husband it would be helpful to get him his own account especially so you can give him a profile. Its kinda confusing to read his symptoms and meds and then have your info at the bottom. FYI you can look all these medications up online in a medical dictionary they list all the side effects too. I'm not saying you shouldn't post or ask, that's just the same info I would give anyone with med questions. For us there's no such thing as too much information. Okay that being said, I actually take Lithium, I was on it 5 years ago and had to stop taking it because my psychiatrist at the time couldn't be bothered to pay attention to things like dosage and blood tests and I ended up borderline toxic(I was on 2700 mg. when I stopped). I assume the psych doc told you about the blood tests? Every 3 to 6 months and 6 weeks after they raise the dosage. I'm back on it now because its the only psych med that's not a drug and i have psysical brain issues(tumors, surgery, radiation) that make it impossible for me to take the other ones. I think it takes 4-6 weeks for optimum performance, he might feel calmer or just less manic sooner than that but that's the time frame for "this is working great" or "nope, we haven't quite hit the right dose yet" so hang in there :-)
Posted 3/10/2013 6:02 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Mywowgirl,

I just want to relate an experience I had with Lithium. I was diagnosed with Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder back in '95 and was initially given Prozac. I was in a horrible state and after 4 on weeks Prozac had felt no mood improvement. My psych added Lithium and within 2 weeks I had fallen so far down the well I attempted to harm myself and ended up in a Psychiatric Hospital.

Some weeks after I was discharged, I gained access to a pharmaceutical report on clinical trials with Lithium and discovered that in 1% of test subjects, Lithium actually worked as a depressant when combined with Prozac - oops!

I don't mean to frighten but educate. There are just so many different meds out there and so many variations in peoples' physiology that it is in your own best interest to research as much as possible - research can be as easy as speaking with your pharmacist - they're the ones who really understand drug interactions.

I have to agree with Recoveryme2day that your hubby should sign up here. It would also do him good to post here - good spelling is NOT a prerequisite to membership - as it always helps to talk things through and there are many many people here that have much to offer.

Here's a link to a pretty good site about drug side effects etc. - http://www.drugs.com/sfx/

Take care and say hello to your husband for us here!

Brian
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