Mood stabilizers other than Lithim

I am calling for responses from those who have had (good) results with mood stabilizers other than Lithium. All the psychiatrists I have seen have basically said that I would be on it for the rest of my life. But I am wondering if this is the case, or if there are some who have either switched from lithium or who have never been on it at all.

When I was in the hospital for the first time (when I was diagnosed), I really didn't see any improvement from being unmedicated to being at a therapeutic lithium blood level for several days - but now I think that it keeps me from getting too "high". It was really the quetiapine (seroquel) that made the psychosis ( as sort of mental busy-ness and feeling "out of it") go away.

It seems that the lithium has really taken out the mania, but hasn't been great at getting rid of depression. Are there people that are on mood stabilizer mono-therapy (one drug) with another drug besides lithium?

As an anecdote, I have not had any side effects from lithium besides increased thirst. I guess I am just lucky.

Hi,

I've been on depakote (valproate) since 1995. For many years I was on it exclusively, then an antipsychotic was added. I've been on quetiapine (made me sleepy), abilify (horrible side effects), zyprexa (made me fat) and was on a lithium-seroquel combo briefly over 10 years ago.

Now I'm on depakote (1000mg) and geodon (ziprasidone). My psychiatrist upped my geodon dosage to 140mg on Friday. Today was the best day I've had in a long time. My moodswings weren't going like mad and my paranoia was relatively calm. Maybe this combo will work.

Best wishes,
Barnett

I was on Lithium for almost a year and didn't really see thne benefits of it very much and had nasty side effects to boot. I have been on Quetiapine for nearly two years now and that helps with sleep.

I changed over to Valproate and it took about a month on a theraputic dose and I felt mush more emotionallt stable, so much so that I have not had any problems for the better part of two months (and I have been under an enormous amount of stress recently as my marriage is breaking up.

Hope that helped

Love and Light
MrN

I'm on lamotrigine for monotherapy, and it's the only drug I've been on for BP (apart from trying omega-3's and eating a lot healthier for a while, which didn't work). It works especially well for depression, and I've just increased my dose to 150mg to try to better control the mania. I'm pretty happy with it. My side effects have been minimal, mostly just my breast size changed and I don't get cystic acne anymore. In fact, most people on this board have had either positive or neutral reactions to it. It just isn't the best at controlling mania if you're not already stable.

For other meds, though, crazymeds.us is pretty great for profiling options, and it's just a fun site in general. I think they even have forums specifically for medication discussions.

I am on a mix now including lithium but have been on carbemazepine alone in the past which helped to a degree but not totally. A friend of mine with BP1 and psychosis does well on fluoxetine with aripiprazole and I know ppl who do well on quetipine alone too. I have always since the carbemazepine being on polytherapy. I would say adding aripiprazole and lamotrigine to the lithium helped a lot. At one point they were thinking about replacing the lithium with valproate but this did not happen. In summary there are options tho everyone is different - but there are options. It might be that you need to be on more than one stabiliser but there are many that are not lithium if that is what you want.

Cracked

lithium made me thirsty and wired. it made any caffiene a big no no for me, as it makes toxicity very difficult to control, and dehydration is worse than that still. abilify,( apripiprisole) made my liver malfunction, zyprexa, (olanzapine) made me fat. never tried depacote, but i have been involved in studies for FDA approval for most of the newer Psyche meds. can't say much for most of them other than that they seemed to work from the clinitian's point of view. as for me, i can't honestly say i can tell if meds are working or not untill someone tells me. (except maybe in hindsight)

yeah, there is unfortunately no "cure" for bipolar disorder, although some have found non-drug treatment regimens that seem to resemble a cure. they must remain on that regimen for the rest of their lives too.

I am on (tegretol) carbamazepine. I honestly don't know if it works, though I guess I could say that my mood swings have definitely spaced out more.

leanandserene wrote: All the psychiatrists I have seen have basically said that I would be on it for the rest of my life.

I just want to make it clear that it is your choice what you decide to put into your body. Yes, you would need to find a psychiatrist who supported you in properly tapering your medication, and there would most likely be some changes that you would have to make in your life to learn to help yourself get through the highs and lows. Recovery from mental illness is real. Recovery is what you define it as. For me, at times in my life that means being on medication, and at other times it means not being on medication. It's about finding a life worth living, however you would define that.