Posted by bleauberry on August 5, 2010, at 16:57:11
In the news recently:
Anti-seizure drugs commonly used in biplor (they showed pictures of lamictal and depakote) have an increased suicide risk.
But the new news as of today is: Revised studies indicate that the suicide risk is only with patients who have depression.
Ok I am confused. First it is claimed studies show mood stabilizer drugs (antiseizure drugs they call them) increase suicide risk. So they scramble to figure out how to reword that before sales plummet, so they protect their behind by saying the mood stabilizers (antiseizure they called them) don't cause suicide unless the patient has depression.
Here's the confusion. Aren't the mood stabilizers commonly prescribed for depression? Lamictal? Depakote? Unipolar and bipolar both, not that that means anything really IMO.
So they didn't really protect their behinds after all, because they just admitted that these drugs might make you feel worse than you did without them.
Oh well. No real point here. Just some observations. Food for thought and debate I guess.
Bottom line IMO: one has to try the drug, whatever it is, personally in order to see what the reaction is, and not try to predict anything based on what happened a little bit more than not in some large sample group.
In my own anecdotal observations, I have seen the antiseizure drugs work year after year against seizures, but seldom longer than a year in depression. Longterm studies that have looked at this topic support that observation. Lamictal's poopout time is usually by 9 months, and is only claimed to "delay" the return of depression but not prevent it.
poster:bleauberry
thread:957352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100731/msgs/957352.html