Many people with bipolar disorder are prescribed a mood stabalizer and an antidepressant as their medication treatment. However, a new study has shown some evidence that the antidepressant does not have much benefit in the mix.
“In this study, we do not show a benefit nor a problem due to antidepressants,” Sachs said. “We didn’t show anything to gain. We also didn’t show any harm, and there may well be individual patients who might respond to antidepressants and individual antidepressants that actually work better.”
As more knowledge becomes available and more research is conducted on psychiatric medications, there will probably be at least some minor shifts in how these disorders are treated. This may be one such example.
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8 Comments to
“Antidepressants and Bipolar Disorder”
When brain research advances to the point where we understand the mechanisms through which various drugs may or may not work, we will have some idea what is going on.
Currently, we have no idea what studies that show “improvement” based on the utilization of various drugs really indicate other than stabilization of affect and improvement on self report scores. So we know how to slow people down, and we know which drug’s effects preferred by the greatest number.
We don’t know how the drugs work (other than sedation in many cases. We don’t know what we are doing to which mental process. We could do similar studies with alcohol, marijuana, heroin and other drugs that would probably score highly on the same measures we are using for psychiatric drugs. Most psychiatric drugs don’t have side effects as dangerous as the drugs I listed, but many actually have quite severe side effects.
It amazes me how much of these substances we are putting into people without really knowing what is going on.
I have a friend who has mood disorder and substance addiction and was advised to sign up for a dual diagnosis program. However, we do not know where to go. Maybe, you can give us a list of centers that are providing treatments for his condition.
Len
How come that it didn’t cause any gain or harm? I thought treatments were given to patients because it was formulated to cure or at least have an effect on most patients.
How come that it didn’t have much benefit? I thought treatments were formulated to cure or at least have an effect on most patients.
I have a friend who has mood disorder and substance addiction and was advised to sign up for a dual diagnosis program. However, we do not know where to go. Maybe, you can give us a list of centers that are providing treatments for his condition.
–len
One place to start would be http://www.na.org to find Narcotics Anonymous meetings in your area. Many people who are dual diagnosed find help in these meetings.
Considering the right treatment for bipolar disorder must be well thought out first. They can’t just give any treatment to patients if those treatments are not even proven to be effective.
I had my first manic phase when I started taking Paxil. We dumped the Paxil and I went on Trileptal and lithium. Those two left me stable but down. I have been trying a host of SSRIs including Wellbutrin and Zoloft but they have no effect. I suspect that the bipolar meds are interferring with the natural course of the antidepressants. I tried Effexor for three weeks, hoping that something a little different might work. No luck there either, so I decided to drop that. I figured that with only 3 weeks in I wouldn’t have side effects with withdrawal. WRONG! It was the worst withdrawal I have ever experienced. I had low grade nausea, a headache and generally an ache for days. Weirdly, just as I quit the Effexor I started getting all kids of manic behavior. I wonder if anyone else has gone manic after DROPPING an antidepressant.
o
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 31 Mar 2007
