andie Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 I guess this is more of a "quality of life" kind of question instead of a pharmaceutical one but here goes. Recently my pdoc upped my medications. I've maxed out at 200mg of sertraline and 1000mg of depakote. He seems unwilling to increase it any further and from what I understand 200mg is the max dosage for sertraline. Fair enough. He said if I don't see an improvement in my depression and concentration then we'll consider switching meds, which I'm willing to do but I'm slightly insecure about it. With borderline personality disorder, I have really frequent mood swings that range from energetic to miserable to suicidal to content and back again. They've lessened but haven't exactly gone away. Should I give this combo more time to work its effects? I've been on sertraline for six months and depakote for about four so I don't think this combination is working for me if I'm still showing frequent mood swings, even if they are more toned down than they used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humanoid Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 I also have BPD, and still see mood swings, yes toned down, but still there, even on my medication. I don't know that they will completely go away with medication, pretty sure that with BPD if you want to see more improvement, you'll need therapy too to work on coping with the mood swings and helping to control them. I may be wrong, but that's been my experience at least. No medication has made my BPD mood swings go away completely, but I believe that they are controlling them the most that they can. The medication can only go so far and then it's up to the person to work on themselves as well. If your meds have toned down your mood swings, I'd say they are working, and I wouldn't give up on them unless that's your pdoc's advice. Are you in therapy right now? I know my therapist is attempting to teach me coping skills to deal with all aspects of my BPD (not that I'm exactly putting them into practice, haven't quite gotten there yet.) So if you aren't already and it's an option for you, that would be something to look into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damik Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 You can visit DBT Self Help and work through some of the information yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallowedink Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Yeah, I'm with the others. I've tried a few meds, and the combo I'm on at the moment is probably the best controlled my moods will ever be by meds. With BPD, really, you can only hope for a dampening/toning down of your moods. If you've got that, I'd say you're doing pretty well in terms of meds. The rest really has to come from therapy, I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Topamax (Topiramate) is supposedly one of the best pharmaceutical solutions to BPD, but really it's all about therapy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlosersclub Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I guess this is more of a "quality of life" kind of question instead of a pharmaceutical one but here goes. Recently my pdoc upped my medications. I've maxed out at 200mg of sertraline and 1000mg of depakote. He seems unwilling to increase it any further and from what I understand 200mg is the max dosage for sertraline. Fair enough. He said if I don't see an improvement in my depression and concentration then we'll consider switching meds, which I'm willing to do but I'm slightly insecure about it. With borderline personality disorder, I have really frequent mood swings that range from energetic to miserable to suicidal to content and back again. They've lessened but haven't exactly gone away. Should I give this combo more time to work its effects? I've been on sertraline for six months and depakote for about four so I don't think this combination is working for me if I'm still showing frequent mood swings, even if they are more toned down than they used to be. I am also young and have Borderline Personality Disorder and wonder the same thing to myself every day. My Pdoc tried uping my abilify from 2mg to 5mg and reducing sertraline from 200 to 150 because apparently the interaction of the two can case mania in bipolar or "bipolar-like mania." I started to feel a little more depressed so then he put me back on 200 of sertraline with the abilify and it seemed to be working... but then I gained 25 lbs and figured it was the abilify so he recently switched me to lamictal, but I'm still on a low dose so m not sure how its working yet... I feel more "empty" than usual but I am trying to give my meds more time to kick in.. maybe you should try to give it another month and if its still not working try a different combo.. like lowering the depakote and adding a better mood stabilizer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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