Parnate and Lithium Carbonate, my upcoming combo

[steve2470]

Next chapter in my psychotropic meds saga: My doc wants to augment my now-working Parnate with Lithium Carbonate ER. It's not because I am Bipolar I, Bipolar II, or Bipolar III (Cyclothymic), but because Lithium apparently works well with Parnate. According to WebMD, I could be categorized as "Bipolar V" only because of my family history of Bipolar I. Bipolar IV is only if you experience "manic or hypomanic episodes that occur only after taking antidepressant medications".

I digress. At any rate, I did my Google University research ™ ® and it is a combo that is used. I must admit, I'm a tad nervous about taking a med that requires regular blood work and care not to get too dehydrated. He mentioned augmenting with Geodon, but that freaked me out even more because it's an atypical anti-psychotic. To me, anti-psychotics (atypical or not) are the absolute last resort because of the possibility of tardive dyskinesia and just my own personal bias. I will take it if the Lithium fails and the doc makes a good case for it, so I'm not totally closed-minded about it.

I hope my rambling about my meds over the past 4 months has helped someone out there. It helps me, so for that, I am grateful, my kind readers. I wish all of you good mental health.

[OregonBlue]

1. Glad you post here. Unfortunately I can't help much. My son is also bi-polar. He's 40 and has

been diagnosed at various times with ADHD, Extreme Anxiety Disorder, PTSD, Schizophrenia, Treatment Resistant Depression and most recently High Functioning Autism. I can't even name all the meds he has been on over the years. He is now on an amazing cocktail of drugs which include antidepressants and Ziprasidone and Neurontin and seems to be doing quite well. I sure wish you luck. It's not an exact science and it really can take years to figure out the right combination. Keep us informed how it's working. He was never able to tolerate Lithium for some reason so I am interested in the combination you are talking about.

[WhiteTara]

2. Good luck with this new regimen

It sounds like you have a strong handle on what is happening and you will be able to tell what is happening in your body from this all, so step into your future health!