Reader’s Question

I’m 53 years old and female. I’ve recently learned that I have had Bipolar Disorder all of my life. Seems it’s heavy on my Dad’s side of the family. After over ten years of therapy and antidepressants we discovered the Bipolar. Absolutely predictable manic episodes that came on at the same times every year.

Years after that I had a complete nervous breakdown, even though you don’t use those words anymore. After that I found out about Risperdal and how much it had helped my son at age 10. That Child Psychiatrist said that he had good results in young people and in the older people. Well I said to my Doctor, let’s try it. It has changed my life. It has helped me so much. My manic episodes were completely eliminated. I also took antidepressents, which I now discovered caused hypomania and when it would wear off I thought the drug stopped working. The Risperdal was controling the mania brought on by the antidepressant. Well now I believe that the antidepressant has no action at all. I thought I could live like this, but with not a break from my depression in 5 years, I can’t stand it any more. I’m investigating other medications to use with the Risperdal; something for the psychotic depression. I’m looking at Zyprexa. I do recall taking this as what I thought was an antidepressant — and for some reason or another it didn’t do the job. But I’m thinking with the Risperdal it might have a different affect on me, what do you think?

Our Clinical Psychologist’s Reply

Zyprexa is not a traditional antidepressant. It’s similar to Risperdal and is a newer generation antipsychotic. However, we do have some antidepressants that work well with Risperdal. I would recommend working with your psychiatrist to explore the medication combinations. As you mention, some antidepressants can produce hypomania (a lesser state of mania) so we must be careful when using antidepressants with Bipolar Disorder. Consult your physician and or psychiatrist. That’s your best bet.