bipolar or not? mania induced by antidepressants

[shay69]

I'm pretty sure my diagnoses is right. I have all the signs of being bipolar. But I want to know if u guys agree that antidepressants only cause mania in someone with bipolar or if it may just be a side effect for some? I was diagnosed by a M.D.  based on mania induced by antidepressants. I want to know if anyone thinks this can happen to only bipolar people or normal people also. And by all means don't hesitate to tell us why u feel that way. Thanks in advance guys!

[PetraM]

I wonder how long after you came off medication that you found you were cycling because I have a 3-4 month peoriod before I always cycle and I am convinced it is the withdrawal of the drugs which cause the cycling.

[shay69]

no offense taken as I  have been here a month or so now so I was not aware thanks!

[adel_ezz]

don't get offended. however i did a previous poll perhaps a month or 2 months ago exactly the same so you can check it in

How did you get diagnosed ( POLL )
by adel_ezz , Oct 23, 2009 07:29AM

it's the same sort of conclusion that most of them got manic by AD

[shay69]

Is there really only 7 of us who have opinions on this?

[ILADVOCATE]

That may or may not happen but the idea is being studied. If you want to know about new classifications in study for psychiatric disabilities you could go to the website for the DSM-5 which now has various criteria under study. As for the original posts as I've stated I was originally diagnosed with OCD and prescribed Anafranil which induced mania and the results were that I became extremely manic and eventually psychotic and had to go to the psych. hospital. I've also had a variety of medications, many of them not psychiatric interact with my psychiatric medications and make me psychotic. I keep a list of those specific medications for when I see any doctor so that they would consider another choice instead.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I've been waiting for them to turn bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and everything else related to them into one big spectrum.

[shay69]

Ya I also think that i'm one of the few who has very rapid cycling Iv went from one extreme to the next 4 times in the last few weeks. Iv been in depressions before and always hoped to come out of it to my "normal self" which is the lesser form of manic. Iv been living like this since I was 8. I can remember hallucinating  things as young as that, but never went into a full blown mania like the one I was in a few weeks ago. I also remember not to long ago having ocd tendencies and I'm sure it was hypnomania. Anyhow I guess I new there was something wrong with me but hid it all to well. And I have a horrible time putting my thoughts into words so the doctors I think based on my very calm exterior and not being able to express myself thought  I was full of ****. It woulda only taken a few extra minz to find out if I had symptoms of bipolar before sticking me on zoloft. And the kicker is he gave me a paper to fill out on a manic questionnaire to give to the pdoc and I answered yes to everyone of them. So maybe I'm one of the few who has this reaction but as it seems to be said a lot you get worse if this happens to u. shouldn't there be something I can do if I do get worse. and to top it off  my M.D. gave me vistaril for my panic attacks. The pharmacist laughed about it and said I must have a mild upset stomach. How furious I am that he refuses to help me what so ever. just venting.. Thanks for letting me ramble!!

[shay69]

I think I was in a mixed state though but all the same I've read that it can happen in a mixed mood also. I didn't feel depressed at the time I felt like I was going a little crazy. My anxiety gets worse and I attributed the feelings to anxiety but now that I have read up on everything I can find I believe it was a mixed state. Even I couldn't explain how I was feeling. All I could muster up was my anxiety. So I got Zoloft. My doctor should have taken note that when I took wellbutrin  and felt better after only 3 days (years ago) and stopped taken it  to be a warning sign. That in fact as Iv read can be a sign u r bipolar if you respond so quickly to an  antidepressant

[adel_ezz]

the problem is that although your first mania may have been induced by an AD but your brain changes and you become more liable to mania/hypomenia in the future. whatever the reason for your mania you are bipolar and entitled to an MS. the idea that it w3as an AD that sent you off is not important now. psychiatry considers you a bipolar because many others who took AD don't get manic

[Xila31]

From my understanding, if you are a "normal" depressed person with no bipolar, then antidepressants will not make you manic, and they may or may not help your depression depending on your own chemisty. If you are a normal person with no depression, antidepressants should do nothing for you. If you are bipolar in the cycle of depression, then those little antidepressants could send you on a very scary ride. So, I think if you're activated by an antidepressant it's pretty likely you're bipolar in one way or another.

[shay69]

thanks for the feedback. Very interesting and helpfull.

[moonpanda]

This is an interesting question. I have access to the best medical school library in my country, so when I'm procrastinating from doing my own schoolwork, I tend to gather up all the latest research and clinical books I can find about BP and take my own personal notes (nerdy, yes). It seems like current research is heading in the direction of viewing bipolarity on a spectrum, from point A being pure unipolar depression to point B being "classic manic depression" [and some even extend the spectrum to schizophrenia at point C to account for schizoaffective disorder and the prevalence of psychotic symptoms in BP]. Basically, individuals with mood disorders will fall somewhere between these two points. When given an AD, a person who is very close to point A (unipolar) will most likely not experience any sort of mania; with luck, they will be able to reach a normal euthymic mood. But for those people who are more in the middle of the spectrum, with bipolar tendencies/ predispositions, adding an AD can trigger mania. And obviously, anyone who is at the far end near point B (classic manic depression) will become very manic very easily when given an AD.

In my experience, my first hypomanias were induced by antidepressants, but I went on to experience spontaneous hypomanias/ severe dysphoric manias when I was off of medication. One of the clinical books that I read even stated that 100% of people who experience hypomania/mania triggered by an AD will go on to have spontaneous episodes, and therefore should be considered bipolar. There is a long list of "soft signs" of bipolarity that would place someone on the "bipolar spectrum", including having close relatives with diagnosed BP. And also, there is the "kindling" theory that applies to epilepsy and bipolar disorder: basically, when a manic episode is triggered, even by an antidepressant, that can lead to changes in the brain that sensitize it to more extreme, more frequent mania and depression in the future.

Obviously there are both advantages and disadvantages to adopting a spectrum view of BP; this topic is still a highly debated and researched thing right now, so there are probably a ton of conflicting articles/books out there. But this seems to be one of the common themes in current BP research that I've seen.