[fingers1]

It always amazes me at how many meds you guys (usa) ore on.
Can you tell me why ?

I am on one med (olanzapine 5 mg )

Why should there be a difference in prescribing meds between the USA and the UK ?

Your thoughts please

Thanks
Fingers1

[CopperStar]

Is there really a noticeable difference? I live in the U.S. and am on 10mg of Zyprexa as monotherapy. This is what my pdoc started me with,, as well. Her attitude is that the less meds the better.

[Moogieotter]

Because they are delicious!

[gayleggg]

I take Fetzima for depression, Saphris to prevent mania, klonopin for anxiety. Just one of them alone won't control all the symptoms.

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I haven't been on meds in over a year, but even when I was, it was reasonable. Generally I was on a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant (depression was always my larger problem). Occasionally he might prescribe something for sleep if I needed it, but usually that was very temporary. And at my very worst points where I had to be hospitalized, there might have been an antipsychotic, but again, that was on a temporary basis. For maintenance, only two meds generally.

[Victoria'smom]

I'm on lamictal, abilify, wellbutrin, effexor and occasionally remron

Lamictal is my mood stabilizer
effexor is my main antidepressant but it couldn't take me out of my depression so wellbutrin was added.
I have tendencies toward psychosis so I'm on abilify. I would love to be on just abilify.

[Nammu]

I think it's becouse of the difference in health care systems. In America it's very profit based. Doctors get special incentives to push pills.

[Moogieotter]

Not sure about pushing generics.

Stakes and need to function is higher here?

Hey fingers1,

How's your functioning? How do you have means to survive?

Thanks for the thread!

moogs

[ensconce]

because of other things we suffer from not just bipolar disorder. Sometimes also one or two of the medicines are simply for treating side effects that others cause too.

[cashart10]

Abilify is used for my psychotic symptoms as well as for an anti-manic. Since Abilify isn't always a strong enough anti-psychotic for me, I also take Haldol PRN (the potential long term side effects of this are too severe to take daily). I take both Lamictal (mostly for the depressive side) and Lithium (mostly for the manic side) as mood stabilizers. I take Vyvanse as a stimulant, to give me completely necessary energy (my energy could be lacking from too many meds?! ). I take Zoloft as an anti-depressant and, I take Klonapin both daily and PRN for anxiety. I take a total of 6 meds every day and 1 prn. I asked my pdoc what we will do if the Zoloft doesn't work and he said he will add Welbutrin. That will make a grand total of 8 (and I'm fairly certain it will go to that unless he is open to explore--a friend suggested an MAOI). I still spend the vast majority of my time very unwell. It is quite ridiculous. I am unsure of the difference in the amounts of prescriptions between the 2 countries. Sometimes though, I just think my pdoc over prescribes. I have a second opinion lined up for Sept.

[HALLIEBETH87]

I take zyprexa 20mg, 300mg lamictal, 800mg gabapentin and 1200mg trileptal.

I'm finally feeling stable

[raspberrytorte]

Because meds are awesome.

[emwell]

Maybe the UK is not willing to spend the money to put you on the meds you need. I bet I am allotted many more therapy visits than you as well.

Maybe you do not have the same diagnoses as me. They have yet to make 1 pill that will help with OCD, MDD, GAD, and ADD.

I live in the USA.

I take a med (3 pills, but all are fluoxetine) for OCD
1 pill (Mirtazapine) to help me sleep. I plan on stopping this one the next time I see my Psychiatrist. Who I see every 30 days. How often do you see yours?
and I take lorazepam BID for anxiety.

Three medicines for 4 diagnoses does not seem like a lot to me.

[lovejoy91]

Very great question. I've notice that, too.

[Moreta]

I have Bipolar I w/psychosis, OCD, GAD, and PTSD. I take a lot of meds.

Lamictal 400 mg - mood stabilizer (mostly depression)
Tegretol 800 mg - mood stabilizer (both depression and mania)
Saphris 20 mg - Antipsychotic (psychosis and mania)
Geodon 320 mg - Antipsychotic (psychosis and mania)
Gabapentin 2400 mg - for anxiety and my back
Klonopin 1-2 mg PRN - for anxiety
Provigil 400 mg - to stay awake from all these meds.

I function well on this mix. I'm out of provigil right now and all I want to do is sleep.

[gina_re]

Who doesn't love a good cocktail?! I was on Trileptal (mood stabilizer) for over a year and just fine until depression decided to come back. Added in an antidepressant to help with that and adjustments are still being made. And there is Vistaril PRN for anxiety. Seeing the pdoc on Thursday, so we'll see since I'm having issues again..

monotherapy is rarely successful in bipolar disorder from what I read.

Most bipolar people can spend most of their time in depression. Therefore, they need an anti-depressant. Problem is, AD's cause mania in many bipolar people, and therefore NEED a stabilizer present to keep that from happening.

Stabilizers are suppose to keep people from going too high or low, but they are not ideal at treating depression in most cases.

If a person has delusions or hallucinations while episodic, they need an anti-psychotic to ease those symptoms.

Medications are added when symptoms require it. For some people, one medication might be enough.

The reality is, there is very little science behind polypharming. Doctors are simply trying to ease symptoms. Some people require more medicinal help to get stable.

I'm in the US, and my doctors didn't polypharm me until I asked about using a combo. Doctors are doing a lot more guess work when prescribing medications, than I care to consider. But if people need help, you got to try everything.

I didn't realize that polypharming wasn't as common in other countries.

[Crazy Hitch]

Hmmm dunno what official research would say.

I'm on epilim and seroquel.

*raises hand to living in Australia

[meganb22]

I'm on 3 meds right now. They all help me in different ways. So as much as I don't want to take meds my whole life, I know it is beneficial to my well being. For the moment, at least. This is just my opinion but I just think that pdocs are very willing to just throw meds at you and keep adding on to see what happens. Of course prescribing medication is their job. There is a lot of grey area and lots of differing opinions. I'm all for taking the least amount of pills as possible for many reasons, one is because I forget to take them. lol. But if a handful of pills is exactly what a person needs to live a more productive and healthy life, then why not? I know that if I wasn't taking my medications I would not be functioning as well as I am now.

[loophole]

I'm on 3... One mood stabilizer 2 aps.. Anti depressants are a big no no for me

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[Nammu]

I'm in the USA too but I'm only allowed to see a Pdoc every three months.

Insurance here would rather dump medication on people than allow therapy.

It really depends on where you live in the states and what kind of coverage you have. And yes I'm very disillusioned with the health care in USA. I think most people here are over medicated. I'm doing so much better on less than before when I was on more.

[~Christina]

At one point I was taking 5 meds a day . I got rather pissy about being on so many when I still cycled, So I made a decision to dump the meds and wing it .. Now my "cocktails" taste fruity and have the cute umbrellas

[SillyKitty]

I take Lamictal as a mood stabilizer, Latuda as an antipsychotic, Cymbalta as an antidepressant, Campral to help with alcohol cravings, and Klonopin for anxiety. I have several disorders, so I doubt one pill would cover all symptoms. I also doubt my pdoc gets much of a kickback since everything is generic except Latuda, and I'm on that because Abilify wasn't working.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm on 7 right now, 8 if you count cogentin for EPS caused by loxapine, my 2nd AP. It's a ton but it's hopefully temporary. I'm on Emsam for depression, Seroquel as a mood stabilizer/AP, loxapine as a mood stabilizer/AP, gabapentin as a mood stabilizer, topirimate as a mood stabilizer, klonopin for anxiety/PTSD/OCD and valium for anxiety/insomnia/EPS treatment. I'm already trying (without great success) to come off klonopin and use valium only. I think that I need a dose adjustment before that's going to work well. I'm on a very high dose of Seroquel and next month will come down to just a high dose of it with the goal being to halve my Seroquel. Gabapentin and topirimate I'm on low doses of both but they both do have an effect on my mood. The hope is that as I stabilize on loxapine which I've only been on about 7 weeks that I won't need those anymore. It's hard to be sure because loxapine is rarely used and even my dr is positive what it will do and not do but so far it has been hopeful as long as we can control the EPS. Cogentin is necessary for the EPS.

So the hope is that eventually I'll be on 2 APs, and AD, and a benzo, plus cogentin. I wound up on so many meds because I've been on 67 cocktails now and am running out of options. So we made Seroquel do everything it possibly could as long as we could and that meant bolstering it with the low dose mood stabilizers that I couldn't tolerate at higher doses. Then when Seroquel reached the end of what we could get from it and it was no longer going to help me without more medication the 2nd AP was added to essentially take some burden off of Seroquel since it can't do everything. I wound up on 2 benzos because klonopin helps with anxiety but when I am manic it doesn't help my sleep and sleeping pills are worthless to me so that left valium which does work for sleep. We're trying to reduce that to just valium and klonopin as a PRN but valium alone isn't getting me to sleep on time and is making me sleepy all day long so it's not ideal, at least yet.

So for me I'm on a ton but it's hopefully at least partially temporary and I got here because of desperation. I'm pretty much left hoping that I make it until a new med is released that I've not tried before and which is safe with my other meds. Hopefully in the next year or 2.

[CopperStar]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

At one point I was taking 5 meds a day . I got rather pissy about being on so many when I still cycled, So I made a decision to dump the meds and wing it .. Now my "cocktails" taste fruity and have the cute umbrellas

I must admit that while unmedicated, sometimes it seemed all I really needed was two shots of vodka and the Smashing Pumpkins, a really good cry and passing out, and felt much better the next day.