I have a friend who has had severe Bipolar for decades, when she was a teen it came on and it seemed as it was uncontrollable until one Dr suggested putting her on MAOi medication(s) Parnate to be precise. She did well for many years but then Parnate "pooped out" for some time and other medications were tried but none of them achieved the desired effects. Eventually Parnate was re-introduced and she began to feel better, this has been going on for the course of 15 years now.

She has been off of Parnate since September and her depression has gotten worse, Parnate may be introduced but we are not certain when. Right now the base of her treatment is Cymbalta and Seroquel, she was given Zoloft and Zyprexa which caused very unusual symptoms so they were removed.

What is happening now is that all she does is whisper when she is communicating even though she can speak normally she will not do anything more than whisper. We are not certain why she is doing this.

The other very unusual thing we have seen and her doctors and nurses have verified this is that whenever she is left alone she will sit quietly and she appears to be at ease, however when medical staff or visitors show up her anxiety intensifies to a point where she is practically shaking and trying to do things she should not do such as get up abruptly since she is a fall risk, she will also listen to the Dr's and take medications accordingly, she is very cooperative with taking her medications but she does not want to eat her meals, she will only eat very small amounts of the meals. I can understand somewhat about the meals but what is confusing to all of us including her doctors and medical staff is that when she is left alone she is pretty much at peace but once she has visitors she has a much higher anxiety level. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Another thing I have seen is that she is very responsive to external commands quite similar to a dog. If you ask her to sit down her body will do it, there will be no question no awareness of surroundings (meaning she will sit down even if there is no chair to sit on) This also happened when we were in the Emergency room, she was trying to get up and I told her to lie back down and her back immediately plopped right back down to the top of the bed there was no time between my command and her minds responsiveness to it, as soon as I said it she just did it.

When she goes to stand and walk it seems as if her mind is not communicating with her body, what happens is that the starts to go forward but her head arches forward resulting in potential falls.

She has been ill in the past but these patterns are very unusual. I desperately want to help her to get better and I know it is going to be a long road to recovery, but I cannot see someone go through this for possibly the next 30 to 40 years.


Thank you in advance.