Sometimes one type of psychiatric condition can mimic another. For example, an accountant in his mid-forties was referred to me for treatment of his low mood. He was very discouraged about his work, where he was constantly in trouble for procrastinating. He was very intelligent and had no difficulty understanding the complexities of his clients’ [...]
Can Prozac induce a manic high? In Bipolar I or Bipolar II manic-depressive patients, not on lithium, Prozac has been reported to induce a manic or hypomanic state, which is why this drug must be prescribed and monitored with great care in such patients. This is a serious problem—and it is certainly something to watch [...]
Prozac works by specifically inhibiting the uptake of serotonin at the nerve endings in the brain. This results in an increased concentration of serotonin at the synapse, which in turn increases the availability of serotonin at the critically important brain receptor sites, thought to result in normal nervous system transmission. Prozac and the other SSRIs [...]
Unipolar depression is the same as major depression, which is the same as clinical depression. It is considered unipolar because, whereas manic depressives experience both terrible lows and manic highs (the twin poles of their disorder), people afflicted with unipolar depression only experience the down phase. When episodes happen repeatedly over the course of months [...]
Subclinical depression is depression that is not extensive enough in symptoms to merit a diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia according to DSM-IV, which categorizes various mental and emotional diseases and lists required symptoms for each major diagnostic category. However, a patient diagnosed with a given disorder doesn’t necessarily display every one of those listed [...]
Many manic depressives are treated with lithium alone, which helps smooth out the rough hills and valleys of the emotional landscape. (In some cases, if lithium cannot be tolerated or is simply ineffective, antiepileptic medications Tegretol or Depakote have been used to stabilize mood and behavior.) Often, however, lithium isn’t enough. The mania may be [...]