[Wanderlust90]

I'm really not sure where to put this so I just submitted it to the bipolar forum because this is where I usually go.

Just over a couple years ago I had an incident where I developed right eye visual disturbance, right arm weakness & abnormal movement, & could not speak, this lasted about a minute all up. I have had migraines with aura in the past both with & without a headache following the aura (which is normally just visual & lasts alot longer). I did develop abit of a headache on the left side after.

CT was clear so I went to a neurologist & had an MRI about a month later. It showed a lesion in the left temporal lobe with no changes on repeat MRI 3 months later & no further symptoms.

My point in regards to this is that after some research I have discovered that temporal lobe lesions have been found to cause emotional instability! Bipolar & depression are linked to lesions in the temporal lobe!

So the worst of my depressive symptoms did not begin until after this event, although I've always suffered anxiety & maybe hypomanias in retrospect. But I had never been suicidal or self harmed before & had never really felt depressed for any extended period of time. The event happened only a couple months after I stopped using meth though, so it makes it hard to figure out the potential cause of contributing factors as I'm sure most become depressed after getting clean also.

I'm putting this out there to hopefully find others who may have psychiatric disturbances as a result of neurological pathology & what helped them the most. It would seem that I should probably try the anticonvulsants?

[Ocean Swimmer]

Yes. Take your test results to the pdoc.
Then try the meds.

[Wanderlust90]

I've mentioned it to both pdocs, neither have batted an eyelid. Neurologist wasn't concerned as I have had no other neurological sx but I hadn't mentioned the mood stuff to him.

[Hashi/bipolar mom]

[quote=Wanderlust90;4884139]I'm really not sure where to put this so I just submitted it to the bipolar forum because this is where I usually go.

Just over a couple years ago I had an incident where I developed right eye visual disturbance, right arm weakness & abnormal movement, & could not speak, this lasted about a minute all up. I have had migraines with aura in the past both with & without a headache following the aura (which is normally just visual & lasts alot longer). I My point in regards to this is that after some research I have discovered that tdid develop abit of a headache on the left side after.

CT was clear so I went to a neurologist & had an MRI about a month later. It showed a lesion in the left temporal lobe with no changes on repeat MRI 3 months later & no further symptoms.

Ok, I'm kind of freaking out right now! When I was 13 I started having these auras come over me (didn't know what they were at the time) and I would space out for about 30 seconds and have deja vu. Then I would get the migraine. I went to a neurologist for it and he said, oh it's just migraine disorder and didn't see anything on the MRI. I could swear it's Temporal Lobe epilepsy because when I started Lamictal 8 years ago, they completely vanished! I would never have thought about a correlation with mental illness. Something for me to look into!

[Wanderlust90]

It's interesting to see how common it is for neurological disorders like epilepsy to be co-morbid with psychiatric illness. Lucky bipolar & epilepsy often have the same medication treatment! I think TLE is actually a differential dx for bipolar?

I'm going to try to get my MRI & take it in for my pdoc to view.

The weirdest thing is the neurological sx I had were not consistant with the site of the lesion but more indicative of migraine, visual to motor to verbal sx matches the theory for cortical spreading depression, which is a type of electrical discharge in the brain spreading from the occipital to parietal to frontal lobe that some suggest is the cause of migraine aura (I've like self researched this so I'm not sure if I've understood everything 100%).
The neurologist thought the finding was incidental & older, I may have had it since birth.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I know there is a really high correlation of migraines and BP, especially for women. 65% maybe?

I have had 2 migraines that happened without aura that were really bizarre and a little scary where my arm and hand went numb for a few hours and then I had that exhausted post-migraine feeling and the sensation in my head that I'd had a migraine but never had a headache. Apparently there are hemiplegic migraines. I've also had ocular ones where just my eye goes weird and my vision gets messed up but there is not pain and then I got through the same post-migraine fatigue and weirdness.

Magnesium supplements have been amazingly successful in cutting my migraines from 20+ per month (related to menopause possibly so the magnesium gets more credit than may be due but I'm too afraid to try less and find out that it was all the magnesium) to less than one most months.

[Wanderlust90]

Hashi I found these articles Are Migraines and Bipolar Disorder Related? | Psychiatric Times

Psychiatric disorders in temporal lobe epilepsy: An overview from a tertiary service in Brazil

Wow this post makes me feel a lot better. I never had migraines before, but have started having them in the past few months, and they are severe and debilitating. However, there have been several times in the past few years where I get left side numbness. I just got an MRI done and am waiting for the results.
Thanks for the magnesium recommendation. Does anyone else have any other tips? I've used fiorcet and a rx anti inflammatory but they don't work at all. I can't take triptans apparently because they interfere with lamictal.
Migraines can go kick rocks.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I was told along with magnesium to try CoQ10 and melatonin. CoQ10 was pretty activating for me and I didn't take it long. Melatonin was never tried and I don't know why. Maybe b/c the magnesium worked so well (you want a higher dose 400-500 mg).

There are other supplements the neurologist told me about but with an MAOI we didn't want to risk those. Butter balm/Bee balm/bee butter balm something like that was on the list as were a bunch of things I forget (I am so helpful). But you may be able to find the list.

Have you tried topamax as a preventative? I didn't tolerate it very well and never got close to the dose needed (which my dr. anticipated) but I do take a little and it might help a bit.

Magnesium definitely was the most helpful thing that I have been told. I had a migraine that was bad enough to need nausea meds and vicodin and a dark room (my doctor prescribes it for migraines because I can't take most things that help with an MAOI) and that was the first in so long I can't remember the last one like it. From nearly daily in 2013 that is amazing.

[Secretum]

I was diagnosed with a seizure disorder as a child, and I highly suspect I still have some sort of neurological problem. I want to see a neurologist; now that I have insurance, maybe I will.

Thanks for this thread!

[Unrigged64072835]

My husband has MS and developed depression because of it. So yes, there is a correlation.