Trileptal as monotherapy for Bipolar II?

[megant]

Has anyone been tried on Trileptal as monotherapy for Bipolar II? I'm on that, and Saphris recently, and soooooo depressed. Pdoc increased my dose of Cytomel for the Thyroid disease in hopes that it would also target the depression, and that hasn't helped. I'm thinking that removal of the tiny dose of antidepressant, and the addition of Saphris, has plunked me into a depth of depression I haven't felt in a long time. But she feels the antidepressant was messing with the rapid-cycling of the Bipolar II stuff. I'm curious what effects people have found with Trileptal alone, if ever.

[bpladybug]

well,,,,,I had a serious side effect of low sodium - very dangerous

I don't think it would ever work for me for monotherapy - but I have BP 1 craziness

You rapid cycle? Have you tried Depakote yet?

[ruger]

I took 900mg of Trileptal about 3 years ago. I added it to my effexor/remeron combo as I was not diagnosed BP2 nor experiencing mania/mixed states at the time. Just wanted to see if the Trileptal would give me a little bit more of a positive lift. My experiment lasted about 3 weeks. I now refer to Trileptal as an anti-antidepressant. I was in a haze and very lethargic for the time I was on it. Just my response to it though, others may have a much more positives to state.

[Anna]

Trileptal and tegretal are not considered very effective in their AD effects Mood stabilizer wise, for what it's worth. They're really more anti manic for most folks though you get the odd outlier. Trileptal did nothing for my depression.

I also found saphris to be very not effective AD wise. It ended up putting me in a very subtle dysphoric state that was sort of hard to pick up on for awhile.

Have you ever tried lamictal? That or lithium would be the standard BP II treatments if AD's are making you rapid cycle.

Anna

[crtclms]

I took Tegretol, which is the precursor to Tri-leptal, for several years, but I was constantly depressed. The mood-stabilizer options were just limited then.

[megant]

I've tried the gamut, including several low dose at the same time. I'm now at this date weaning off low dose seroquel, as my fasting blood sugars have risen. We are increasing trileptal bit by bit. It works great for the rage I get into, and I seem a little hypo manic today.

Depakote-weight gain and zombie

lamictal-rash

Everything else, name it lol.

I'm hoping like mad that low dose synthroid for hashimotos and therapeutic level trilep would do the trick after all these years.

Yes mixed manic, rapid cycling.

Thanks all for responding....

[Cuttlefish]

I tried monotherapy of tegretol at 800mg and then trileptal at 900mg, which are about equal in effectiveness if either drug works for a person. Without an antidepressant, I had continuing dysthmia.

Short answer: I needed stuff aside from only trileptal to help with all of my bipolar symptoms. Trileptal seems to not have an antidepressant effect for most people, and for that you'd probably want to look at lamictal or even lithium. But trileptal with Wellbutrin and Seroquel is working well enough for me.

[bubblegirl]

I am BP1, rapid cycling (hourly), mixed episodes. I am currently on 1200mg Oxcarbazepine and 300mg Lithium. I have just dropped Saphris, thank goodness. What a nightmare. So far the combination of a very low dose of Lithium and the standard "therapeutic" dose of Oxcarbazepine is working for me.