Need some advice - please! - Bipolar Disorder Message Board

erin1715 · 04-18-2007, 11:47 AM

Hi everyone, my husband is currently in the hospital for the depression side of bipolar disorder. This is about his 3rd or 4th visit in the past year and he has so far been resistant to medications. In the past year, he has had two different rounds of ECT treatments. The first round brought him right out of his depression, but only lasted about 3-4 months. The second maybe lasted a month and now the doctor is talking about doing another round. My husband has been on 1800mg of lithium for a couple days, he started at 900mg and worked his way up. He's also on lexapro and risperdal and so far hes been in the hospital for a week with no change at all. He feels the exact same way. My concern is that we're jumping the gun going to ECT again, does it seem like we should be waiting the meds out a little longer to see if they will kick in? But he has never been brought out of his depression with meds before, does that mean we will never find the right mix of meds? I'm just not sure what's the right decision...

tsohl · 04-18-2007, 05:36 PM

Hi Erin,

Would you mind telling us how old your husband is and how long he has had bipolar disorder?

erin1715 · 04-18-2007, 07:58 PM

He's 26 and was diagnosed with depression at 18 years old, but only recently did the pdoc hes with now diagnose him as being bipolar. I don't think I've ever seen the manic side but I believe he's had some hypomania...

tsohl · 04-18-2007, 10:06 PM

I guess no one on the board at the moment knows much about treatment-resistant bipolar depression. Lithium is a very good medication for those that can take it. It can take up to 4 weeks for it to "work." My son (age 25) has had good results with lithium, and he takes two additional mood stabilizers: tegretol and Lamictal.

I'm afraid I can't offer any suggestions about the ECT. I have no experience with it.

I'm sorry your husband is having such a hard time finding meds that work for him. Hopefully someone else will have some experience with ECT and will see your post.

take care,
Tsohl

erin1715 · 04-19-2007, 07:00 AM

Thank you for your response and I appreciate the information about your son and lithium. I do know that lithium is a very good drug for bipolar and my husband has only been in the therapeutic range (according to blood tests) for maybe 5-6 days, so I'm hoping this will help. For now, we have decided to wait on another round of ECT treatments and hope the meds work for him. Thanks again for your response.