Mood Stabalizers

I am currently on meds for my bipolar, one of them being depakote. The depakote is causing some side effects and I am wanting to try a different med. I am a little worried about lamictal because it can cause a serious rash and I'm also worried about topamax because it can cause kidney stones and those run in my family. Are there any other mood stabalizers besides those two and lithium? I have not really seen that many mood stabalizers out there. Thanks for any input.

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I suspect there are, but I can't think at the moment. As far as I know, the rash from Lamictal is pretty rare. I was on it for years. I suggest you talk to your doc about the risk for kidney stones with the other drug.

tegretol, trileptal, and neurontin have been used. neurontin is now being seen as ineffective. don't know about tegeretol and trileptal. APs can also be used as mood stabilizers according to my pdoc(s). i'm on abilify.

There are loads of medications , you and your Pdoc need to decide together what medication(s) to try. Every medication has the potential for side effects , Hell tylenol has a long list of possibly side effects.

Sometimes it takes a while to find a good combo that works for you.

Good luck

I would say, about possible side effects:
the most important ones are those which are pretty common or which effect organs and stuff where you have a family history of disorders in these parts.

I wish you find a good solution.

I am on depakote, so I think I cannot give you good advice here.

Yeah Lamictal is not bad. I am on it at 300mg. Your doctor just has to slowly ease you up in dosage. If you do it too fast then you might get the rash. Mine went from 25-50-100-200 mg, and more was added as needed.

Seroquel is giving me some success. My head doc says it's a single med for bi-polar...we'll see

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the extremely rare lamictal rash. Even if you were one of the rare people to get it, it certainly could be treated before it became fatal. You hear about it so much because MD's don't want you to blow it off if you get it, thinking "oh, it's just a rash."

Lamictal might e a good med for you. Weight neutral and relatively low side effects for most people. It helped me a good deal with mood, although I have found Abilify (an AAP) to be the most helpful for me and my brain chemistry.

Best,
EJ

Lamictal gave me a rash but not the deadly one. It was SO itchy though.
It also caused hair loss. But other than that it was the best, honestly. Made a world of difference.