went to see my psychiatrist yesterday. i get started on lamictal tonight. it is an anticonvulsive medication.
the history on anticonvulsive medications is they were originally developed for seizures people with epilepsy. there were enough people with epilepsy and bipolar. while taking the medication they experienced relief from both their convulsions and bipolar symptoms. when that happened, they also started using the medication for bipolar only with similar success.
it is similar to the story on lithium. in the 1880’s lithium had been primarily used for gout. the belief of the day thought bipolar disorder was gout of the brain. for that reason lithium got prescribed for bipolar disorder. it had great success it treating the symptoms.
as research continued, discoveries separated gout from bipolar disorder. with that discovery, lithium fell out of favor as a treatment for bipolar disorder. in the 1950’s, the world “rediscovered” lithium success with bipolar disorder and it became the primary medicine for bipolar disorder.
my psychiatrist gave me an article that tracked some 450 patients in europe over decades. it kind of pisses me off on the power of marketing. while antidepressants are pushed big time in todays’s day ant time. the long terms study sows how the antidepressant drugs don’t “cure” depression, they only shorten the cycle. the additional problem arise when antidepressants are continued after recovering from the depression. the drug also shortens the period of time between depressive cycles. antidepressants have great short term success but the longterm study showed time and again how they screw up longterm cycles.
i plan to do a complete writeup on the article later this week.
in the meantime, i am thankful for the psychiatrist i have. he came highly recommended from my gp. also got a strong recommendation from our marriage counselor. He is the psychiatrist that gets used when all other method seemed to fail. and he also had great record of success.
so, i have hope that my stubborn depression might actually see some control.
facing off with the big d 
I’ve been on lamictal for a year now and it’s been doing well for me. (I’m bipolar II). I tried depakote (considered another frontline med for bipolar) and lithium, which didn’t work for me (and the side effects of lithium weren’t fun). I’m now also on Saphris, which is an antipsychotic. I’ve found this to be very effective and has made me feel balanced a lot of the time. Good luck with your med journey!
thanks for the encouragement. glad you have found a med that works for you. i hope to get there, too.
I just started the lamictal over the weekend myself. Let’s be guinea pigs together! 😛
waaaaaahooooooooo!!! isn’t a rodent being fun!
i hope you have a good psychiatrist that started you at a low level, 25 mg/day, for the first little while. for me that is 10 days. that will lower the chance of side effects. if not, give your doc a call and tell him you want to start slower to minimize the chance of side effects. unfortunately, themanicknitter got started too fast 50 mg/day, and is now experiencing side effects.
I am on a baby dose for two weeks, then I go up for two weeks, yadayadayada…