Glad you brought this up... I've been wondering a lot about this lately, too. I've read conflicting theories about taking antidepressants for bipolar disorder. Like Candy said, I think the major concern is that for some folks with bipolar disorder, taking a-d's can throw them into a manic episode.

I've been taking Effexor for a little over a year now, and I'm up to 225mg/day. It helps to reduce my depressive symptoms, but I've never experienced anything even close to relief from depression. I was dx'ed with chronic, treatment-resistant Major Depression until about a month ago, when, thanks to some intense work with my excellent T, my dx was changed to Bipolar II (might be type I, actually... I don't get manic too often, but when I do, I tend to get pretty delusional & out of it!)

Anyway, Effexor has never seemed to activate any manic episodes for me. I will probably need to start on mood stablizers as well. But for now, according to my T, the Effexor seems to be keeping me safe. It's the strangest thing -- I clearly still experience intense periods of depression, and I can feel them physically (sleeping 16-18 hrs per day, binge eating carbs, feeling slow & heavy) and cognitively (in a deep mental fog, difficult to think, remember things, make decisions, etc)... but ever since the last time I up'ed my dosage of Effexor, I haven't been able to feel my depressions emotionally! I'll be fully aware that I'm sick, but I don't feel the intense despair, urges to self-harm, etc. At most, I'll feel upset or angry for a brief period, or frustrated that I can't do anything. But I'm completely detached from the actual emotional experience of being depressed! It's bizarre, but I spose it's helping me take better care of myself during depressive episodes. Doesn't seem to have much effect on me at all when I'm hypo...

Anyway, sorry for rambling on & on like that. This is just my personal experience... of course I'm hardly an expert, lol. Hopefully your pdoc can shed some more light on the issue for you....