not an antidepressant fan, personally. and yet...I'm prone to bouts of psychotic depression. I had that from a young age, and I turned Bipolar I when (yet another...) bout of psychotic depression switched into off the wall, psychotic mania.

point is...at times, I do need an antidepressant. With ongoing Abilify plus whatever mood stabilizer(s), Wellbutrin seems to get the job done, nicely. I usually stop the Wellbutrin when things have smoothed out and/or I start feeling too apathetic (that happens with most antidepressants, but its worse w/ SSRI and SSNRI options).

some people do well on remeron, with another drug added in severe cases of depression. MAOI drugs aren't popular, but I had an acquaintance who did well on Parnate for bipolar depression.

According to my current shrink, tca drugs are usually not a good idea for Bipolar. They can be miraculous for severe depression, but they have a high rate of switching Bipolar people into mania, they can make psychosis worse, plus they have all kinds of drug-drug interactions, they're lethal in overdose, and long term use can cause problems (cardio, I think..).

some Bipolar people like Provigil or NuVigil. Some do well on old school stimulants, such as Ritalin or some form of amphetamine. And then...

there's those of us prone to psychosis. My current doctor doesn't want to use an antidepressant for me, and he even wants me off coffee (ugh!).

Plus, a -lot- of people do not benefit from SSRI drugs. They can be awesome if you have OCD or if obsessive stuff is part of your depression, but...whoa. They can also cause a lot of emotional numbing, mood instability, etc. I read somewhere....takng Prozac (for instance...) is like taking a stimulant and a low dose antipsychotic, except unlike back in the day (when those were often put in 1 pill, lol), you don't know the proportions of each, and the reaction to the drug varies based on genetics, personality, other drugs, etc.

:-)