Mood Central

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1993. From that day I have taken various medications searching for the right balance. Bipolar disorder or manic depression is a brain disorder caused by chemistry in the brain. Moods are regulated, therefore, in the brain and will have little or nothing to do with circumstances, although stressful ones will triger episodes. I had mixed episodes which means I could be flying high in the morning only to fall into depression in the afternoon or evening. All of a sudden things I did for pleasure just weren’t enjoyable any more. The challenge for the doctor is to find medications that treat you for depression but do not put you

into mania or treat the depression and then find you’re in mania. And some medications are very good at evening out the mixed moods. Very often anti-seizure drugs are used as mood stabilizers.

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This article actually is an appeal to a Medicare Part D provider who thought I should have to pay double the co-payment on a medication I had been taking for years because of it’s high expense. (It’s somewhere around $555.00 for a month’s supply.) But I knew trying other medications would be at best an exercise in futility. At worst, it is not an easy thing to find the correct balance of medications and to remove one will cause suffering. So here is my appeal to my provider:

Think of a factory and your brain as a network of factories, all committed to keeping bodily functions and the mind itself in well -oiled condition. Each network of factores is

owned by a one person, in this case myself. All the workers have assigned jobs. However, for the owner there is trouble in Mood City.

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You may have read plenty of literature discussing the importance of changing your lifestyle and your diet for a healthy mind. These are excellent resources that can help you manage your depression. However, there are times that these alternative modes or natural ways of treating depression are not enough and that the only thing that can help you for the moment is a dose of anti-depression medicine.

Depression and Anxiety - The Basics

To understand how anti-depression medicine can help a depressed person, you must understand how depression and anxiety can strike a person.

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Lexapro has fewer and milder side-effects than other drugs in the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) family of drugs used in the treatment of depression and general anxiety disorders. One common side-effect of this however is weight gain though it is far less than with other SSRI drugs. Weight gain however is a very undesirable side-effect because of the mood swings and low self-esteem that weight gains can cause to people already suffering from depression or general anxiety disorders. It should however be noted that not every person on Lexapro treatment gains weight.

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LEXAPRO has fewer and milder side-effects than other drugs in the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) family of drugs used in the treatment of depression and general anxiety disorders. Yet, Lexapro can have severe withdrawal symptoms. It is also important to remember that Lexapro is the newest member of SSRI family, hence has not been around long enough for its all its side-effects to be observed and studied.

Withdrawal symptoms can be severe on generalized anxiety disorder (GAD patients if the treatment is stopped abruptly. A dose skipped can also cause avoidable side-effects. Hence, patients using Lexapro must not miss a dose and not stop treatment abruptly without consulting the doctor.

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