Posted 11/9/2018 6:38 PM (GMT 0)
As a biopolar I, who has the full mania, while you say you are bipolar II, which net says is not full mania, I take Lithium for the mania and Mirtazapine for the depression.
You said you are just starting Amitriptyline, which net says is a tricyclic, and is an antidepressant. I took that many years long ago as the generic Elavil (which no longer has that brand name net said, but is still sold as Amitriptyline). I did OK on it.
I was on another tricyclic anti-depressant called Sinaquan for many years but my psychiatrist took me off of it about 5 years ago because, as I was getting up in age, she said it could cause me heart problems (and side effects list says it can).
She said something like, Sinaquan is and old-style anti-depressant, as maybe all tricyclics are. I'm not sure about that, but that's my guess.
I got this data from drugs.com, which has a section called "user reviews."
In that, it allows patients to write their experiences with various medicines, and one of them is for Amitriptyline. I would read that, as it has hundreds of replies from patients who have used Amitriptyline.
In the search engine or address bar, you can type in drugs.com, or in the search engine type in 'Amitriptyline", and drugs.com is one of the top entries. At the drugs.com website, at or near the top, it lists various topics, such as "doses." One of the 6 or 8 topics is "user reviews."
about your other meds the net said:
Amitriptyline (anti-depressant)
Pristiq (anti-depressant)
Depakote (helps with seizures and mania)
Wellbutrin (anti-depressant)
I think you are right to try and figure some of this out. Are you going to both a psychiatrist and a general practitioner?