Bipolar disorder med's?

Question

What long term effect do some bipolar medication have??
i have been taking them since 2000 i have so far been on-
topamax
buspar
depakote
zoloft
prozac
abilify
tegretal
and alot of others i can't remember...
i some times feel like i was used as a lab rat..
i mean the buspar made my teeth fall apart i have so far 4 missing teeth and 15 others that have holes in them..... i also know that another one i was on did some damage to my liver...

so what i would like to know is what is some of the long term effects of these meds i have been on and do you think that i was used for medical research???

I am now on abilify again and i seem to have extreme insomnia

i think it was depakote that damaged my liver
zoloft i gained 30 pounds
and my friends mom that was also on zoloft gained weight...

Answer 1

Hi, I'm bi-polar with psychosis and I take the following:

Abilify 10 mg (for depression)
Geodon 40 mg (for mania)
Lamictal 200 mg (for mood stabilizer)

I definitely am sending some good vibes for you to find a med mix that works for you! These things can and do take years. I was on Lexapro with bad side-effects and I was on Depakote with weight gain. Lamictal is used instead of Depakote and I'm at a normal weight.

Good luck!!!

P.S. You are not a lab rat.. these things just take time!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~good vibes~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Answer 2

Well, tegretol has been around for a long time. With long term use it can cause aplastic anemia and other blood disorders, so you need to keep a watch on that, but otherwise it's pretty safe. Depakote can cause muscle twitching and tardive dyskinesia, which is a serious neuromuscular problem, so at the first sign of muscle twitches you should go to your doctor immediately and get off Depakote. Prozac is fairly free of long-term problems, at least as far as we know at this point. The others I'm not sure of, but you can always look in the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference), which can give you up-to-date information on any drug you're interested in.

Answer 3

Bi-polar is hard to treat. Was it Abilify that did damage to your liver? I don't know if those medications have long term effects, but I think Abilify might do some damage at least to the pancreus, because of the tests they do when they put you on it.

Answer 4

I think it's less about being used as a lab rat and more about doctors just having NO CLUE how to treat mental illnesses.

Personally, I went through a whole long list of drugs for anxiety and depression. During the process, I discovered that I'm allergic to most of them. As I'm sure you can imagine, the experience was quite unpleasant.

These days, I don't take anything except SAMe to level out my mood a bit. I just try to cope as well as possible without swallowing handfuls of pharmaceuticals.

Answer 5

You could not have been used for medical research without signing a consent for that.

Bipolar disorder is very hard to treat and it can take a lot of trial and error before the "right" medication for you is found. You should always talk with your doctor about any side effects you are having and about any concerns you have about your medications.

You could also go to the library and look up medications in the PDR [Physicians' Desk Reference] or go to WebMD.com to find out more about your condition and meds.

Good luck to you.

Answer 6

I don't know about the future effects of bipolar medication, but as far as us being treated as lab rats, that part is true. We're all lab rats in this world. Every choice we make is being studied.

I even got a psychiatrist to admit that all doctors use their patients as lab rats, the logic behind his answer is, how would we ever learn which medications work and which don't.

But if you think about it we're all God's lab rats. Whether you believe in God or not, everyone in existence is part of the equation.