Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 603972

Shown: posts 1 to 17 of 17. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by rbean on January 28, 2006, at 23:35:19

Hi,
I just started on Lithium (lithobid) a few days ago for BP II. Since I've been on it at 300mg a day I've just felt like climbing the walls. I have very little appetite, I fidget constantly, and just have constant highly unpleasant and fairly disabling inner tension. I have no interest in doing much of anything except distracting myself from this feeling and I can barely sleep at all even with 300 mg trazodone.

Has anyone ever heard of this or have any ideas? I'm supposed to increase my dose to 300 mg bid, but I'm afraid to. I feel like this is kind of frying my brain. Kidneys check out okay. I should not be toxic at this dose. I do have a history of being sensitive to low doses of medication. I've read a little about glutamate and lithium. In mice, lithium acutely inhibits glutamate uptake, increasing glutamate in the synaptic cleft, though chronically given it modulates glutamate uptake. THis feels like the sort of activation that an excitatory neurotransmitter like glutamate would give. But glutamate is neurotoxic, so yikes.


I'd love some suggestions if anyone has any.

Thanks a lot,

Becca

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean

Posted by blueberry on January 29, 2006, at 6:14:01

In reply to Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by rbean on January 28, 2006, at 23:35:19

I thought maybe it was just me. I had the exact same feelings as you, except on just 150mg. It was so uncomfortable I could not tolerate it and didn't even make it past 3 days. I had to stop.

I hadn't heard about glutamate action, though the feelings I had definitely felt like over-excitation of something. I got very loud hissing tinnitus from it too, so that didn't seem like a good thing to me.

You might want to hang in there and see if things adjust. I couldn't. Or maybe call the doc and have them call in a prescription for xanax to calm you down instantly to give the lithium some time. I tried reducing my dose to 75mg and that was still too much, so I just sighed and quit.

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean

Posted by ed_uk on January 29, 2006, at 11:56:24

In reply to Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by rbean on January 28, 2006, at 23:35:19

Hi Becca

Are you taking any other psych meds apart from lithium and trazodone?

Ed

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » ed_uk

Posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 12:14:40

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean, posted by ed_uk on January 29, 2006, at 11:56:24

Hi Ed.
Thanks for your help. I'm also on a very small dose of reboxetine (norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) that I vary slightly upwards and downwards to obtain a response. FYI, the method of reboxetine use is one of the reasons the doc thought I was bipolar rather than unipolar. I was thinking of requesting pregabalin to help with sleep as well as the edgy feelings, since I was formerly diagnosed with CFS and pregab is found effective in fibromyalgia, a closely related illness.

Becca

> Hi Becca
>
> Are you taking any other psych meds apart from lithium and trazodone?
>
> Ed

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » blueberry

Posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 12:19:28

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean, posted by blueberry on January 29, 2006, at 6:14:01

Hi Blueberry,
Good to know I'm not the only one. I may try breaking my tablets up and taking small bits more often.

Becca

> I thought maybe it was just me. I had the exact same feelings as you, except on just 150mg. It was so uncomfortable I could not tolerate it and didn't even make it past 3 days. I had to stop.
>
> I hadn't heard about glutamate action, though the feelings I had definitely felt like over-excitation of something. I got very loud hissing tinnitus from it too, so that didn't seem like a good thing to me.
>
> You might want to hang in there and see if things adjust. I couldn't. Or maybe call the doc and have them call in a prescription for xanax to calm you down instantly to give the lithium some time. I tried reducing my dose to 75mg and that was still too much, so I just sighed and quit.
>

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean

Posted by ed_uk on January 29, 2006, at 14:06:20

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » ed_uk, posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 12:14:40

Hi Becca

I was wondering whether you were on an SSRI or an antipsychotic. Combining lithium with these drugs can cause extrapyramidal symptoms such as restlessness.

Do you live in the UK or Australia?

Ed

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » ed_uk

Posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 14:32:02

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean, posted by ed_uk on January 29, 2006, at 14:06:20

Hi Ed,
Actually I live in the US.

Becca

> Hi Becca
>
> I was wondering whether you were on an SSRI or an antipsychotic. Combining lithium with these drugs can cause extrapyramidal symptoms such as restlessness.
>
> Do you live in the UK or Australia?
>
> Ed
>
>

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » rbean

Posted by ed_uk on January 29, 2006, at 14:38:24

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » ed_uk, posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 14:32:02

I guess you imported the reboxetine! I should have realised you lived in the US when you mentioned the brand name Lithobid.

Ed

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by greywolf on January 29, 2006, at 15:22:49

In reply to Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by rbean on January 28, 2006, at 23:35:19

You can't sleep with 300mg Trazadone? That would knock me out solidly.

I think you should call your doc and get an adjustment.

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by Squiggles on January 29, 2006, at 15:31:47

In reply to Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by rbean on January 28, 2006, at 23:35:19

Every medical book and guide I have read
and my own experience has been that bipolars
are first started on a high lithium dose --
something like 1200mg, then stabilized if
manic or depressed; then the blood level
is measured at 0.8-1.2 and then lowered
to about 800-900mg. I have never heard
of anyone being started at such a low dose
and perhaps it is being used as an adjunct,
in which case the interaction may be resulting
in your agitation.

That's what i know.

Squiggles

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » greywolf

Posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 15:35:09

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by greywolf on January 29, 2006, at 15:22:49

I actually took 400mg Traz last night, and that finally knocked me out for a good 11 hours. That isn't too good though because I think the maximum dose is 500mg. I began taking 12.5mg four years ago and have gradually needed to increase the dose.

Becca

> You can't sleep with 300mg Trazadone? That would knock me out solidly.
>
> I think you should call your doc and get an adjustment.
>
>

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by linkadge on January 29, 2006, at 16:31:47

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » greywolf, posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 15:35:09

There could be an interaction between the trazedone and the lithium. You could be experincing an akathesia as a result of general serotonergic overstimulation.

Linkadge

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by linkadge on January 29, 2006, at 16:38:01

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2006, at 16:31:47

OHOT, I know that lithium gives me really bad restless legs in bed. If I take lithium I just CAN'T get comfortable.

Linkadge

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by Phillipa on January 29, 2006, at 21:32:59

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2006, at 16:38:01

When I was working in psch they usually started at 300mg a day and titrated up according the lithium levels. Fondly, Phillipa

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » linkadge

Posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 22:38:37

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by linkadge on January 29, 2006, at 16:31:47

I had read the word akathisia before, but wasn't sure what it meant. I looked it up and I think that this is exactly what's going on with me.

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium

Posted by Squiggles on January 30, 2006, at 7:22:18

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » linkadge, posted by rbean on January 29, 2006, at 22:38:37

> I had read the word akathisia before, but wasn't sure what it meant. I looked it up and I think that this is exactly what's going on with me.

I looked up trazadone and akathisia is one
of its adverse effects. Lithium can induce
tremor if the dose is high... what they do
together, i don't know.

http://www.mentalhealth.com/drug/p30-d03.html

(search trazadone akathisia - many hits)

Squiggles

 

Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium » Squiggles

Posted by Phillipa on January 30, 2006, at 16:32:10

In reply to Re: Please help - Weird response to Lithium, posted by Squiggles on January 30, 2006, at 7:22:18

And they say it's good for sleep. There are more side effects than with the MAOI's, SSRI's SSNRI's, TCA;s. Staying away from this one that's for sure. Fondly, Phillipa


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