Bipolar Disorder

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Lithium vs other meds (self.bipolardisorder)

submitted 1 year ago by Alfiegerner to c/bipolardisorder

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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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[–] ickplant 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.

[–] Alfiegerner 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] ickplant 2 points 1 year ago

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