True Mood Stabilizers

[Seph1212]

This is really just a semantics issue, but I see the term 'true mood stabilizer' bandied about in various places. Usually it's in context of the anti-convulsants not being true mood stabilizers. This leaves lithium alone an a class all by it self.

I realize that anti-convulsants were developed as such and later found to act as mood stabilizers, but don't forget that Rogaine was developed as a heart medication, yet we don't class it as such.

Wouldn't lithium really be a 'true salt'?

Maybe the anti-convuldsant mood stabilizers should really be called a class of brain stabilizers. As both epileptics and manic depressives find that end result. It's also interesting that 'kindling' is a concept for both disorders.

[Xila31]

Also, even though Rogain was originally developed for the heart, it isn't used for that anymore. For example, when someone tells you to get some Rogain, they don't mean you have a bad heart. But all anti-convulsants and anti-psychotics are still used for those purposes, causing the mood-stabilizing effect to be more like a side effect for the good.

And it is annoying that only lithium has been studied and used for bipolar. You would think by now some other bipolar only medicines would have been researched.

[adel_ezz]

Hi IL

what about gabapentin/neurontin an AC with low side effect profile. Each time i mention it to a pdoc he said NO. they say only neurologists who recommend it. Yet i found here 2 persons using it and are contented with. What do you think of it ?
thx

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes anti-convulsants that work on mood stabilization have a very specific effect. What they mean by "true mood stabilizer" is that lithium is the only medication that was first researched and developed as a primary mood stabilizer. Every other mood stabilizer was developed as another medication and used off label as a mood stabilizer and then only FDA approved for that purpose afterwards. They are finding that the anti-convulsant used for my physical disability is showing mood stabilization properties and they may potentially document that. The connection between mood stabilizers and anti-convulsants is known but there hasn't been specific research that was able to prove why but of course manic episodes and seizures both involve over activity in the brain. There are other medications that are used off label for mood stabilizers besides anti-convulsants with varying results. Lovaza is an anti-cholesterol medication derived from the way fish oil works is one of them. That is in clinical study as a mood stabilizer. One medication that is in use as a mood stabilizer but rarely used due to its severe side effect profile is the blood pressure medication Catapres which the mood stabilizer I use. All of these classes of medications work in different ways in the brain.