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Suggest Treatment For Bipolar Mood Disorder
Question: I am a 64 year old male who is a bipolar I, borderline patient of chronic nature. I take psychiatric meds but one now seems to be causing dizziness and appears to worsen my essential tremors. I may also have a very mild case of peripheral nurothopy ( I know misspelled) . Does lamictal at 150 milligrams cause the aforementioned symptoms? It really does not appear to be helping the bipolar condition much. See psychiatrist soon and he has me on 100 milligrams of primodine daily. Do u recommend a neurologist as well. Also seeing my primary MD.soon.
Brief Answer:
Lamictal can cause peripheral neuropathy and tremo
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through.
Bipolar mood disorder is quite a common illness and it requires proper long term treatment. This will need you to take mood stabilizers and antipsychotics for improvement. Mood stabilizers such as valproate, lithium, carbamazepine and antipsychotics like quetiapine, olanzapine or aripiprazole are good drugs for this purpose.
The treatment needs to be taken for a longer period and you can function as a normal person during the period.
The lamectal that you are taking is not a first line mood stabilizer and it can cause the peripheral neuropathy and tremors that you have mentioned in your case. Dizziness is not something which is associated with lamictal. However it would be wise to get your mood stabilizer changed to either valproate or carbamazepine which are much better in controlling mood swings.
Primidone 100mg may not help with these symptoms. Please do consider seeing a neurologist for peripheral neuropathy and dizziness.
Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link:
bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy
Wish you good health,
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.
Lamictal can cause peripheral neuropathy and tremo
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through.
Bipolar mood disorder is quite a common illness and it requires proper long term treatment. This will need you to take mood stabilizers and antipsychotics for improvement. Mood stabilizers such as valproate, lithium, carbamazepine and antipsychotics like quetiapine, olanzapine or aripiprazole are good drugs for this purpose.
The treatment needs to be taken for a longer period and you can function as a normal person during the period.
The lamectal that you are taking is not a first line mood stabilizer and it can cause the peripheral neuropathy and tremors that you have mentioned in your case. Dizziness is not something which is associated with lamictal. However it would be wise to get your mood stabilizer changed to either valproate or carbamazepine which are much better in controlling mood swings.
Primidone 100mg may not help with these symptoms. Please do consider seeing a neurologist for peripheral neuropathy and dizziness.
Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link:
bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy
Wish you good health,
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
My psychiatrist has tried several mood stabilizers or meds-are there any newer meds that are front line and is one at least available in generic form-are any antidepressant meds called for? I have no current plans for suicide but have had ideations. Have therapist-new one. maybe a change of psychiatrist is called for but I have 13 years of investment with psychiatrist. Have had numerous hospitalizations and obviously, I am difficult to medicate. Had 6 ect treatments bipolar in 1996 and it helped for 2 years. Maybe needed again. Also long term treatment of ambien has been used for me-is that med really dangerous
Brief Answer:
Answers as under
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Thanks for the additional queries,
The first line mood stabilizers are valproates, divalproex, carbamazepines, lithium. All these four are good and should be tried before moving to other drugs. Hope your psychiatrist has tried all of them.
You have mentioned that you have had ECTs in the past and in that case, I would suggest you should go for ECTs for sure. They are safe therapies especially as now only modified ECTs are given and they are very effective.
Ambien in long term is not dangerous except for its addiction potential. However if your sleep is fine, then you may try getting it weaned of. Or try doing so when your depression improves.
Hope this helps,
If you have any further queries, do let me know.
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy MD
Answers as under
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Thanks for the additional queries,
The first line mood stabilizers are valproates, divalproex, carbamazepines, lithium. All these four are good and should be tried before moving to other drugs. Hope your psychiatrist has tried all of them.
You have mentioned that you have had ECTs in the past and in that case, I would suggest you should go for ECTs for sure. They are safe therapies especially as now only modified ECTs are given and they are very effective.
Ambien in long term is not dangerous except for its addiction potential. However if your sleep is fine, then you may try getting it weaned of. Or try doing so when your depression improves.
Hope this helps,
If you have any further queries, do let me know.
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy MD
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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