Posted by SLS on February 13, 2005, at 12:18:15
In reply to Re: ADDENDUM:// caused temporal lobe seizure?, posted by Spriggy on February 12, 2005, at 23:30:16
> I'm actually not bipolar. I've never been diagnosed with it.. My father is bipolar, and his mother (my grandmother) was but bipolar has been ruled out for me.
Bipolar disorder is highly heritable. If your parental diagnoses are accurate, my guess is that you too are bipolar, regardless of whether or not mania or hypomania have yet been recognized. I bet if you were to be interviewed properly using the life-charting method of the NIMH, bipolarity would be observed. There will be a formal description in the future DSM that will describe a subtype of bipolar disorder for which depression is its only presentation.
It is often bipolarity that is responsible for the difficulties that are encountered when treating depression as if it were of the unipolar variety. I would suggest thinking about using mood stabilizers in addition to antidepressants. Trileptal would probably be a good place to start for you.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:456517
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050212/msgs/457162.html