Thank you for the articles.
I have no doubt now that this is what's happening. I remember the feeling of "inner-tension" and the psychomotor activity I was experiencing prior to being admitted for dysphoric/agitated mania. It's just happening to a lesser degree.
I'm only feeling these symptoms in the morning. I doubt I would be feeling them at this point at all if I was one of the patients who responded to only a nightly dose of Seroquel. But so far, the prns are doing the job.

I hope this is just a shift to a positive mood, but I escalated into a more pronounced euphoric hypomania during the middle of last week, requiring my meds to be readjusted. When I was in the hospital, they treated the dysphoric mania like mania. There is little room (50mg) to adjust the Seroquel again if I escalate.

I'm worried that I may max out on Seroquel and require an additional drug, posing more problems. The only drugs I found commonly used with Seroquel are Depakote and Lithiium. I cannot take Depakote, and would only even entertain the idea of taking Lithium at a very low dose.

Both my pdoc and the psychiatrist in the hospital told me I'm "running out of drugs." And that's not a comfortable thought to have right now.

Kay

Kay,

I take 200 mgs Gabapentin at night.
It is a low dose but seems to help with depression and anxiety.

My old pdoc's plan was to get me to 600 mgs but I was overwhelmed with the brain fog / sleep affect -- can't explain exactly but two to or three times tried to increase the dose.

M

Thank you for mentioning that Mari!!!

I was taking a very hefty dose (totalling 2400mg/day) of Gabapentin for years for neuro pain d/t MS. I stopped it a while ago because it wasn't working for me anymore. I forgot it was a mood stabilizer too...
Maybe that's another reason why I've been harder to control recently.

I'll have to mention this to pdoc tomorrow.

Man oh man, You are a wise one!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Kay

Good luck.

I hope that it helps.

M

I saw my pdoc today...

I had been slowly tapering off Gabapentin for several months because it's an anti-convulsant and I was on such a high dose. But I came off the last of it (300mg) a couple of days before I was discharged from the psych hospital 8/2. I honestly didn't think 300mg was a big deal. Apparently the psychiatrist didn't either.
I thought when I was discharged that I had reached my baseline, but I was still hypomanic and I'm obviously still struggling with that.

Pdoc said this was "excellent information."

Rather than bump me up to 800mg of Seroquel, she's going to keep me at:
600mg at bedtime with 50-150mg prn during the day

and add:
300mg Gabapentin at night

Technically, I'll be on 4 mood stabilizers, but I guess I have been for 7-8yrs.

I don't know how it will interact with Seroquel, but:
300mg was not an issue when I was on Abilify, and I was taking 2400mg of it when I was on 1800mg Lithium, 400mg Lamictal, and 200mg Topamax.
So my body obviously has a high tolerance for it.

If taking it with 600mg of Seroquel becomes a problem, I can take it during the day instead.

If it works, I imagine my Seroquel dosage will need to be adjusted. Or at least I won't need as many prns.

I am experiencing dysphoric hypomania, and have been taking 750mg of Seroquel for the last 3 days.

Thanks again for sharing your experience, Mari. I had factored out the Gabapentin

Kay

Hi Kay. I usually take 600 Mgs of Seroquel before bed. If I start feeling to tired the next day over a period of time,I decrease my Seroquel dose down to 450 Mgs before bed. I stay at that dose for a week or two,and when I start feeling more panic/fear/OCD/depression,I go back up to 600 Mgs before bed. I've been doing that for several years.

I was cleaning a hand vac last night,and I started feeling a lot of anxiety that sometimes comes with doing to much cleaning,and having allergy attacks. I took part of a Seroquel,and some of my other meds, it was time for them,then I became less hyper, and less freaked out. I was getting hyper. I hate that fealing,but I'm taking the meds,and praying.

The Seroquel has been a really big help in reducing my mental health challenges,but it slows me down. I can accept this slow down because the meds combination are helping my anxiety problems. BF

Kay,

Good pdoc visit.

I am guessing on the fewer prns.

I was put on it by my pdoc/neuro for nerve pain but I could only get up to three hundred mgs before I was wiped out with sleepy side effects.
(Hard to deal with meds that cause sleepy affects when I am trying to go into work without enough sleep.)

If you have not seen it, here is a fun site run by a guy with more than one MI/personality disorder/something
http://www.crazymeds.us/pmwiki/pmwik...Meds/Neurontin

M

I've noticed the that I get that tired hang over if I medicate enough, too. I held back on some of the med Sunday to avoid it. I haven't been experiencing it the last few days though. It really is a trade off.

It stinks that you have to, but it makes me feel better that some of you have to play with your meds too, and have found ways to make them work better for you

Cleaning can really get me going too. I've been trying to stay away from anything more involved than vacuuming the last few days. I don't feel well right now and the last thing I need is to get wrapped up in something and rev myself up. My anxiety has been really high.

You warned me about the weight gain with Seroquel. I have gained 6-7lbs since starting. It's not unwelcome, but I don't want to gain much more than that.

Kay

How is hubby through all of this?
bizi

Once the prns kick in I appear to be more "normal" and that's what he sees when he gets home from work. He did notice a difference this weekend because he saw how I was in the morning before I medicated. And he saw the difference after I medicated. He said I wasn't off the wall, and it didn't seem to faze him.

He's noticed a drop off in productivity the last few days (I'm not scrubbing the walls anymore). Part of that is intentional, part of that is because the type of hypomania I'm experiencing now is less-goal-oriented (I left that part out). Yesterday I told him that "I'm not feeling well and am trying not to get myself worked up."

I like the fact that he's picking up on changes in my behavior, and is getting involved enough now to start asking questions.

I saw pdoc and I told him we are just adding back a drug I was taking before. He detests dose increases and drug additions, but he was satisfied with my explanation.

I try to tell him enough so that he understands what is going on without going into any detail. His responses to my explanations lead me to believe that he thinks I have things under control.

Sunday he told me he wasn't going to drink during the week anymore. Monday he came home with a 12pk. After that was gone, he got into some hard stuff. He didn't drink last night, but he did take an OTC sleeping pill.

No recent disagreements

Thank you for asking Bizi,

Kay