There is no reason to panic if you have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as there are many traditional and new bipolar disorder medications available to assist you with the bipolar condition. Whether you are in the manic or depressive phase, antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers helps return your condition to normal and prevents you from returning to either phases.
Other treatments for bipolar disorder
Undergoing therapy is a good additional measure to alleviate your symptoms. It helps you develop a self understanding of bipolar disorder to empower you to cope with lifes stresses and therefore be less likely to have symptoms recur. By having a self understanding you are able to tell the doctor if the bipolar medication you are on has stopped working or has decreased in effectiveness.
Commonly prescribed bipolar medication
Mood stabilizers
Mood stabilizers help you cope with both mania and depression. In general, you’ll take these both when you’re first diagnosed to help you get your manic and/or depressive phases under control, and you’ll stay on them to help control your illness long term. They can prevent mood cycling and make your cycles less severe if they do happen.
Commonly prescribed mood stabilizers are valproic acid and lithium. Lithium is recommended for individuals who have episodes of euphoric mania, while valproic is often the drug of choice for rapid cycling or mixed episodes.
Antidepressants
Antidepressant drugs can be useful for those who spend far more time in their depressive phases of bipolar disorder than they do in the manic phase. However, there has been some recent concern that they may not be effective and may even trigger manic episodes, making bipolar disorder worse over the long term. Therefore, if you’re already on a mood stabilizer, it’s not likely that you also will need an antidepressant, although you should of course check with your health care practitioner to make sure. It may also be that your health care practitioner will prescribe an antidepressant for you for the very short term to simply help you cope with a severe depressive phase, then discontinue it once your symptoms are under control and continue with just your mood stabilizer.
Anti psychotic drugs
Previous prescriptions for bipolar were antipsychotic drugs such as Hadol or Tharozine. They have been effective in most treatments of bipolar disorder; however they have negative long term effects such as permanent movement disorder with involuntary tics called tardive dyskinesia.
Therefore, so-called “atypical antipsychotics” are preferred; these include Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel, among others. These may also be effective in the treatment of bipolar depression.
Other medications used for bipolar disorder
Benzodiazepines
Mood stabilizers and antidepressant medications usually take several weeks to work. Benzodiazepines can often be used in the short term to help with anxiety, agitation or sleeplessness while the mood stabilizers take effect. Klonopin and Xanax are some examples of them. It is wise to use these only in the short term as they are so highly addictive.
Calcium channel blockers
Channel blockers are usually used for disorders like high blood pressure, but they can also be used when you are not able to tolerate lithium or other mood stabilizers. However, they are less effective compared to traditional mood stabilizers.
Thyroid medication
Those with bipolar disorder often also have problems with their thyroid. Thyroid medication can be added to the drug regimen to correct this situation. Lithium can also cause low thyroid levels, which is another reason thyroid medication may be needed.
Finally
Always bear in mind that no medication and therapy will be effective for you unless you adhere to the doctors orders. Further to this it may take some time and adjustments to find the right protocol for you. It is always wise to stay on your medication and go to your therapy sessions as directed by your doctor to stay well. Should you have trouble with medications never go off them without consulting with your doctor. They should be able to make adjustments so that you feel well.