Bipolar Disorder

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Lithium vs other meds (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi all,

I've been on Lithium for around 10 years, it's been a life changer for me. Aside from mood stabilisation, I feel it's had positive effect on my mental health in general, odd little kinks and glitches ironed out.

However physically I feel like it's been quite rough on my body. I've had various issues to do with inflammation (e.g. hospitalised for cellulitis), have developed horrible painful psoriasis on my scalp that turns into welts, and get incredibly itchy in my hands and feet especially so take antihistamines to get under control.

Does anyone else have experience like this or am I wrongly thinking this may be lithium related? My GP doesn't think it's necessarily related but may be.

I'm considering changing meds but not sure of the effectiveness of others,, what the side effects may be and how they would make me feel.

Thoughts welcome 😊

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've never been on lithium, my go-to mood stabilizer is Lamictal (lamotrigine). I've had minimal side effects (brain fog and a lack of verbal eloquence at first, but then it went away).

Check out the common mood stabilizers in our med guide and see if you want to talk to your doctor about any other options.

You may want to look at the connection between inflammation and bipolar. More and more research seems to show there is one, but there's still not enough studies. I wonder if the issues you are having (bipolar and inflammation) are related, and lithium could just be there clouding the situation but not causing harm.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks! that's really interesting on the bpd inflammation link, I'll read up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here's a decent article that provides links to some peer-reviewed studies - you might like it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been on Lamictal and abilify since I was formally diagnosed about 4 years ago. I've had none of the issues you've mentioned and it seems to work for me. I've never been on lithium though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks, will Google.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

My wife was on lithium until last year when she was hospitalized for some kind of kidney infection or something similar, which may have been caused or exacerbated by the lithium. She also had Covid the week before this happened, so it was really tough to figure out what was going on. Needless to say, she got off lithium just in case and swithched to Seroquel. It took a while to get the dose right (and I'm not entirely convinced it is yet) but the side effects haven't been terrible.

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