Monotherapy?

How many people are being treated with just 1 medication?

My pdoc has me just on seroquel xr at the moment @200mg every night and i see him again in 2 weeks. Sometimes this knocks me out and other times it hardly makes me drowsy.

My mania has some psychotic parts but nothing serious.

I never really thought to ask why im only on that and not a mood stabilizer or antidepressent but will def ask him when i see him next.

Anyone else just using the one med?

One med is my pdoc's goal for me. I'm on Lamictal 300mg and the idea is I'd stay on just that. Weaning off my AD at the moment (it's a 'let's see what happens' situation), and other than that I just have Trazodone for sleep.

When I saw one p-doc, she said there's a body of literature that suggests Bipolar individuals should only be treated with a mood stabilizer or anti-psychotic because antidepressants don't work with those meds or might make things work.

Then, I saw another p-doc who said that it depends on the person. Some need one med and some need two or three.

A third p-doc said the literature suggests that a mood stabilizer or anti-psychotic should almost always be augmented with an antidepressant.

I think it depends on how the p-doc was trained and which body of literature they believe/follow.

Well, that explains a lot!

In this respect, I'm glad I go to a pill mill for my Rx's; they see so many people that they seem to be pretty well aware that different people need different treatments and sometimes that means a cocktail. In fact, monotherapy has never been presented as a viable option for me.

As I increased Lamictal, I was reducing Wellbutrin. I'd do really well for a few days after each Lamictal increase, but then the crushing depression would kick back in. I just went back up on my Wellbutrin dosage, and presto! I've been pretty stable since - much longer than previously - and had no med changes at my last pdoc appointment, for the first time in 2 months.

I might be able to reduce the Wellbutrin again when I'm less stressed and the days are longer and sunnier. At this point, I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to eliminate antidepressants entirely, but the rest of my life is (hopefully) a long time, so we'll see.

I was prescribed Lamictal and Respiridone, but I stopped the Respiridone because of weight gain & have taken only the Lamictal for the last year and I am very stable.

I have been on a mulitude of meds .. currently on Haldol , Lamictal , halcion and xanax for sleep..

I would LOVE to just take one med but I dont think its in the cards for me LOL

Good Luck

Yeh im not stable at all at the moment so just not sure whats going on with just this one med. Ive read about it and its not even really a good dose for anything.

I'm working my way up on lamotrigine, and so far it's working. I'm hoping that's all I'll need to take long term to stay stable.