Multiple mood stabilisers at once?

How many of you have been prescribed multiple mood stabilisers to take together? I don't know much about all this, still, although I try my best to learn as much as possible about bipolar. I was prescribed abilify and to continue taking lamictal with it. It just seems strange as surely you only need one and the dosage matters more than the quantity of different stabilisers? Hmm...just a thought for the day!

I've only personally been on one mood stabilizer at a time. Looking the two meds up though, it looks like they target different things. The Abilify is used to treat acute episodes while the Lamictal is used to delay the onset of episodes.

http://www.rxlist.com/abilify-drug/indications-dosage.htm
http://www.rxlist.com/lamictal-drug/indications-dosage.htm

I'm on three mood stabilizers (one being an anti-psychotic)

Im on two mood stabilizers which are meant to target two different issues. I would say its not that uncommon.

well, your meds do different things. I am on Lamictal-Saphris and Seroquel. I think its usual for people to be on multiple meds. At one stage I was taking Clozaril and after that Abilify as well.

It's common - I'm on 4 (see signature)

Some mood stabilizers prevent depression better (like lamictal), and some prevent mania better (like abilify, it's used to treat acute mania)
Your doctor is probably trying to "cover all the bases".

I am on lithium, lamotrigine, aripiprazole and quetiapine. They cover different things and most importantly do the job for me.

Cracked

I took Depakote and Lithium at the same time. I'm pretty sure there was no reason to be taking Depakote, though - all it did was make me unmotivated and overweight. Lithium actually helped, but it made me so nauseous I couldn't even look at the bottle without getting sick. So...that was my experience.

Thank you everyone! It makes a lot more sense to me now.