Hi Colleagues in BP
Mania is no big deal I suppose as an antipsychotic agent can extinguish it, at least for me. It's depression is the major issue in BP and that is the reason why a pt starts being medicated. Even though if both are an issue then from the very definition of bipolarity you have 2 poles. If you can exterminate one then you conquer BP and stop the following cycle
mania>antipsychotic>depressed>antidepressant>mania and the viscious circle indefinitely. This is why we resort safely to a mood stabilizer to finish off this bloody circle.
However if one can come out with an antidepressant that doesn't cause mania then farewell to BP. Don't you agree with me.
Now i am starting myself (take me as a volunteer) on a medicine available in our country and unfortunately non existent in either the UK, USA, Canada, Australia i.e. the English spoken countries it's produced by Servier a French comp and called Stablon/coaxil/tianeptine. It is advisable to take 3 pills each of 12.5mg however i take one only and i recovered from depression in 4 days. The drug has minimal side effects or interactivity it says so suitable for geriatric
I tried to surf the web and after one whole day I could only find this link of a patient addressing a psychiatrist possessing a site asking him about the relation between tianeptine and bipolar mania this patient lives somewhere in europe and her psychiatrist told her it's the only AD which doesn't cause mania. The guy replied that he couldn't find any data on that yet it doesn't preclude the possibility of mania. So nobody knows exactly how or why.
Upon consulting the wikipedia on the side effects, i found one group in turkey in 2004 reporting a case of hypomania with tianeptine, that's all. Now here's the link
http://www.bipolarworld.net/Phelps/ph_2008/ph1701.htm
PLZ try to understand, I am not doing a reclame for stablon, neither i am advising pts to try it, I am only trying to share some info which can be useful to all of us. Of course I have to wait and see. I found though pts living outside europe ordering it on line from pharmacies in europe. LOOK again, i am NOT a sales agent of this comp.
Perhaps, someone here can dig more into this med.
it says a tricyclic, yet i hate the name because this drove me manic the 1st time, they say it's an SSRE whatever that is. It's is a good anxiolytic also.
Wish me luck that i don't become manic.
ezz