Question:
Lithium treatment for depression?
Answer:
Cheer up, if you can't laugh at yourself the world will do it for you. May I suggest gently that the feeling fat and bald and flat and
apathetic may lie within the person. I have taken lithium a full four
years and feel none of these. I lost forty pounds on purpose at the
time I began lithium and have kept it off. I certainly am not bald but
have a full head of hair. As to flat and apathetic, forget it. I am
seventy one and male. I know what it was like to be a boy in the
thirties and so on down thru the years since. I did it without
lithium. I was only DXed four years back. Lithium immediately began to
make a difference for the good in me. My family remarked on it. One
daughter, 24, told me that now for the first time we could have a
conversation. She said until now it was always combative,
confrontational, and full of dispute. I will take the flat of lithium
if that is what it is. These posts just go to prove what I have long been saying. We ALL have
very individualistic responses to ALL psychoaffective meds. Some meds
that are blessings for some people are curses for others -- and vice
versa. It is OUR responsibility -- NOT our pdoc's to keep on seeking
until we find the med combinations that will work for US with side
effects WE can tolerate! If your current pdoc will only prescribe the older first generation mood
stabilizers (lithium, Depakote, and Tegretol) and you have not responded
well to these and he/she refuses to prescribe any of the 9 newer mood
stabilizers, I strongly recommend that you change pdocs. Otherwise you
may never show improvement.
Become proactive on your own behalf! If you don't, then who else will? I"ve been off and on lith. for 22 years.
Did put on weightBut would look funny bald. Hope to see you more on here.
What about joining
us in Cafe. Of course there is a difference between
the way we feel and the way we look. My post was more than slightly tongue
in cheek, 22 years of lithium is true however, and it is the best I have
tried
so far. Again, you are so right about "whats in side affecting the diseases
outcome or overall satisfation with life. As James says we are all
different
in our response to medication, I would add, we are all different I agree with James wholeheartedly about the individual response and
importance of being proactive, but unfortunately there are many poor
individuals with Bipolar on Medicaid, Medicare, and with no insurance
whatsoever who have a limited choice of not only psychiatrists, but what
medications they can receive. Case in point: today I talked to a young lady on Medicaid at my agency who
is in a deep bipolar depression. She has to go to a doctor at our agency,
basically accept the one she is assigned to (unless she makes a big stink of
it) and has a limited range of medicines she can request (due to State
Medicaid formulary restrictions). I am going to inquire to the State
Medicaid agency on some of the new anticonvulsants, but I am not too
hopeful.
This isn't even mentioning those persons in HMO's who have limited
restrictions on which doctors they can see.
I would love everyone to be able to do what James is talking about--truly be
able to choose any psychiatrist he or she wants--unfortunately now, the only
people that can do this are the people who have private insurance without
restrictions on choice--an increasingly shrinking group.
The answer? (or part of it) --on March 1st of this year, Senator Pete
Domenici (R-New Mexico) and Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) introduced a
bill that would close the loopholes of the current Federal Insurance Parity
Act (which supposedly provides partial parity, but there are enough
loopholes to drive a donut truck through) --due to expire in 2000--and
provide FULL parity for severe biologically based mental
illnesses--schizophrenia, bipolar, major depression, severe panic, severe
anorexia, and a few others. I don't know what the number of this bill is
yet, but when I find out, I'll post it.
That is true. I am totally indigent with no insurance, HMO, Medicaid,
Medicare, etc. -- yet because I am both persistent and patient, I have
generated viable alternative. Please see below for details. That is too bad! :-( Each US pharmaceutical company has "freebie" med programs for those who
do not have insurance and meet their differing minimum income standards.
It would appear that she would qualify. Here are a few Web sites that
will provide you with additional information:
http://www.phrma.org/patients/index.html
http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/aminys/Medicati.html
http://www.themedicineprogram.com
In any event her pdoc will have to agree to be a part of this program to
get her free meds. The pharmaceutical companies will send her pdoc a
3-month supply of the meds prescribed. Her pdoc will then be responsible
for doling them out to her. I suppose this is for liability reasons if a
person should commit suicide with these meds. Here's what I did. In El Paso there is an organization that deals with
mental health and mental retardation issues called Life Management. They
charge on a sliding fee scale based upon income -- so I don't pay
anything and get my meds free as well. There are several psychiatrists
available -- about half of those I tried, I liked. I would not hesitate
to request another pdoc if I didn't feel comfortable with the one I had.
BTW one of them didn't even think I had BP! I felt like stopping my
Neurontin and introducing him to Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Horrible -- just to
show how wrong he really was. But he fortunately only lasted one visit. The main problem was that Life Management's formulary only had the usual
three mood stabilizers (lithium, Depakote, and Tegretol). After giving
each of these a fair trial, I had to stop taking them due to severe
adverse side effects. All my pdocs were stumped. I was taking 75 mg 4
times/day of Effexor (for deep depression) and 0.5 mg of Klonopin at
bedtime. Consequently I was swinging back and forth. I really needed an
effective mood stabilizer! So I went to the Web to see what else was
available and found Dr. Ivan Goldberg's site on gabapentin. Also Ian
Schneider was posting in the BPwebsitess about his positive response to
Neurontin. My pdoc wanted to prescribe it for me -- but he couldn't
because it was not in Life Management's formulary.
So I went to my Primary Care Physician on the off chance I could get a Rx
out of him. But he wisely said "no". Then I tried my Neurologist (who
happens to be the dept head of the Texas Tech Medical School). He was
very familiar with Neurontin because of its anticonvulsive properties and
he was taking it himself because of its analgesic properties. So I got my
Rx. But I was ODed. I was started with 300 mg capsules -- not 100s!
It took a few months to find the correct dose for me. The most troubling
adverse side effect of Neurontin for me was back pain. So I had to
balance increased mood stability against pain. Anyway, to make a long
story somewhat shorter, as a result of my excellent mood stability,
Neurontin has been recently been added to Life Management's formulary.
Now other indigents with BP can take advantage of it's potentially
wonderful properties. Of course Neurontin is NOT for everyone! There are
NO Magic Bullets!
I guess the moral of this story is: "If you are willing to fight long
enough and hard enough, you can make a positive difference!"
This sounds good! I have additional information from NAMI that I can post
if there is sufficient interest.
