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Q: Do My Symptoms Represent OCD, Pyschosis, or Mood Disorder?
Dear Doctor,
I was diagnosed as BPIII 8 years ago after I turned 25 years old. It was first
thought to be OCD but the SSRI's I originally tried all made me hypomanic, thus
the new diagnosis. Depakote hurts my liver and lower back but seems to work
okay. Lithium makes me dizzy at low doses, but worked okay. Trileptal and
Tegretol makes me an insomniac.
My symptoms started as I began a relationship with a woman. They consist of
intrusive sexual obsessions whereby I picture my partner having sexual
intercouerse with her ex-boyfriends. It makes me want to kill myself because I
absolutely cannot talk about her past or even hear the names of her boyfriends.
This happens with every woman I date. I have tried therapy many times over the
years but I don't want to go forever.
I rapidly cycle everyday and especially with the change of seasons. I was
hospitalized once before due to suicidal ideation and frequently think aboout
going back just to get needed attention from Doctors. I still fantasize about
suicide when I am stressed out, but never made an attempt. I have been taking
25mg of Seroquel and .5 of Klonopin at bedtime for 8 years now and it helps
somewhat. I have tried every combination of medication under the sun and this
was the only one I can tolerate. I have bad side effects from all other meds,
even at the very lowest dose.
I tried tapering off of the Klonopin last month by cutting it in half but became
extremely emotionally sensitive and suicidal. The sexual obsessions and suicide
came back with a vengeance. I always believed that the Klonopin caused my
excessive suicidal ideation and wanted to get off of it, but now it seems I was
wrong. Also, my memory is not nearly as good as it used to be. My questions are
these:
1)How can I get off Klonopin with no withdrawal symptoms and is it safe to
continue taking it for the rest of my life?
2)Do my symptoms represent OCD, a form of psychosis, or a mood disorder?
3)What combo of meds would you recommend as I cannot tolerate much of anything?
thanks,
Mike
Dear Mike --
1)How can I get off Klonopin with no withdrawal symptoms and is it safe to
continue taking it for the rest of my life?
Once you get up around 55 or so, Klonopin might become
a problem. I'm guessing you've got a ways to go. In that time I hope we'll
have some other solutions. Sounds like you've figured out it's pretty useful at
this point. So for now, sounds like you've got to stick with it. I use a lot
of it, and have had very little trouble with using it long term (I'm trying to
think if I've had any, other than people overdosing on it...)
2)Do my symptoms represent OCD, a form of psychosis, or a mood disorder?
Given that you also describe "cycling", from the info'
you present, I'd lean toward a more bipolar-like explanation than OCD, though
often the two occur together so tightly intertwined that one can't really sort
them out. However, I've had very good luck treating such folks with an emphasis
on mood stabilizers and de-emphasis on serotonergic antidepressants, on the
whole, with one glaring particular patient exception, who's now doing well on
high dose Prozac (he's one out of maybe 50 or so with that intertwined
combination, I'd estimate).
3)What combo of meds would you recommend as I cannot tolerate much of anything?
Guess I just touched on that. I finally had a patient
get on Zonegran after the first 4 had nausea at 100 mg; but now that there's a
25 mg version, maybe that will become more widely used and studied. So far it
seems from the literature that it might fit, very roughly speaking, in the niche
that Depakote is in (except with weight loss rather than gain). So that might
be one more medication for the list.
Dr. Phelps
Published April 2005
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