Lithium causing apathy and low energy?

[Christian82]

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with taking Lithium and having very low energy/ motivation levels. I am currently taking 900mg at night before bed, and my serum level is 0.59. Besides doing the bare necessities for survival ... eating, dressing, sleeping, I could not give a flying f**k about anything. All my interests have faded away since I started taking Lithium when I was in the hospital 5 weeks ago. As a side note, I am also taking 37.5mg of Effexor to help with depression/anxiety, and it seems to be helping somewhat. My doctor prescribed 100mg of Provigil and 12.5mg of Lamictal, but they have not done much, if anything for my energy.

[borzage]

That was pretty much my experience. I didn't care about anything, not even the fact that I was failing high school and all my friends were abandoning me. I stopped drawing, playing guitar, trying to succeed at anything. It sucked the big lemon.

Worst of all, I was still depressed, and my stupid p-doc kept increasing my dosage because she thought all I needed was more Lithium.

Plus it made me fat and gave me cystic acne. I am so glad those days are over!!

[resonance]

When do you see your pdoc next? What did he/she say about your fatigue and lethargy, if you've brought it up already? I ask because the things you describe can also be symptoms of depression. I have had fatigue from getting toxic on lithium, but I have far more often had it from depression, and .59 is not near toxic levels. Your doctor may have a much better idea than we do whether it is the lithium causing your fatigue and lethargy.

[SunshineOutside]

Hmmm. I also have been troubled by sleepiness, lethargy, & extreme apathy. This continues after I started coming out of depression in the um Spring. I feel great but do not have the motivation to do much of anything except for when I make myself.

I am on all of the medications that you listed. My Lithium serum levels run about 1.0 on an average. Since I started treatment for bipolar II several years ago I have never had a hypo manic episode. (but constant depression-with small breaks). I'm mainly on Lithium for the small antidepressant effects.

The apathy is what I am most concerned about now. Can Lithium cause that? How about the sleepiness and lethargy.

Thanks for the topic.

p.s. Lorazepam causes sleepiness too even at small doses.

Sincerely,

SO

[Ammity]

i feel that way when i'm either depressed, or overmedicated. i would say lamictal is doing it to u but its such a very very low dosage... and the effexor is extremely low too, so i think you may be onto something that its the lithium. are u sure its not the depression though? its possible to be too medicated and get disthymic depakote kinda did that to me.

[wifezilla]

This sounds like hubby's experience.

[Christian82]

Thank you very much for all your replies. When I browse the crazy boards the one thought I get is that there are an infinite number of different med combinations, and every human brain is so vastly different, so the best I can hope to gain from posting is shared experience. I will update this post as things change. I see my pdoc twice per week, but I won't see him until the 8th of Jan when he returns from vacation.