as a mood stabilizer. Topomax is quite a common mood stabilizer given to the patients.
Some other well known medications for bipolar disorder include the following:
1. Lithium
2. Valproate or Depakote
3. Carbamazepine or Tegretol
4. Olanzapine or Zyprexa
5. Ziprasidone or Geodon
Lithium for years together, is termed as the miracle drug for bipolar disorder. This sodium based medication helps the patient in balancing the chemical imbalance of the brain. This chemical disorder is the key to the manic episodes among bipolar patients.
Valproate or Depakote, originally developed in the form of a seizure medication, effects the bipolar patients to help the rapid cycling bipolar moods cycling every few hours and/or days rather than the weeks or months. It has been miraculously effective among many cases of this aliment.
Carbamazepine or Tegretol, another anti-seizure medicine, appears to have all similar effects on the bipolar disorder patients as Depakote. Though it is yet not approved by the Food & Drug Administration to be prescribed for the bipolar disorder patients.
Among the bipolar disorder patients suffering with the manic state anti-psychotic drugs like Zyprexa or Olanzapine, and Geodon or Ziprasidone have been quite effective t control the severe psychotic symptoms.
In the depressive state of the patient, anti-depressants are given. The common anti-depressants given in cases of bipolar disorder are Citalopram or Celexa, Escitalopram or Lexapro, Fluoxetine or Prozac, Paroxetine or Paxil, and Sertraline or Zoloft. While Celexa and Prozac are the most commonly used medications among them, all the above medications have proved to be very successful in treating depression.
2. CBT
Not all patients can be put to medications. The cases that involve a history of drug abuses, cannot be put to medication, else it could land up in a great risk. Also, it is hard to find that mood swings occurred due to bipolar disorder or drugs and say if the extent o bipolar disorder was not too much in the body, the medications would end up harming the patient quite severely. Also as a basic fact the patients move to medication only when no other resort is found.
In such special cases where medications are not the right choice, CBT comes in to being. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy popularly known as or CBT is a sort of a therapy that is used to assist the patients in recognizing the exact triggers & causes of their depressive & manic states. Then the patients are made to learn the techniques so as to avoid the triggers & henceforth and cope up with the symptoms during the episodes. 70% of bipolar I disorder patients are made to undergo the CBT experience, especially those when one or a few episodes have taken place with in 4 years of initiating the CBT treatment.
CBT treatment to cope with bipolar disorder is used to accomplish two major goals. These are:
i. To recognize the manic episodes prior to their becoming uncontrollable & making a conscious change in how one reacts to these episodes.
ii. To learn the techniques, thoughts, reactions & behaviors that would help them offset the depression.
With the various activities & techniques prescribed by the expert therapists, these goals are achieved quite effectively.
Under CBT, the effectiveness of the treatment of the bipolar disorder mainly rests in the hands of the patient, as he/she is allotted homework like – performing some exercises, reading, etc. These are focused on helping the patient understand his/her condition and to help them learn the methods to cope with the situation.
The steps to conduct CBT are as follows:
1. Making a Contract with the Patient
Initializing CBT, you need to make a treatment contract with your patient. In this treatment you draw a definite plan of treatment for the patient and he/she agrees to follow the same. This also includes the patient’s promise to do all his homework complete taking all assignments seriously. The patient in this contract also ensures that he/she would take any & all the prescribed medication just as directed. This is a crucial step towards CBT as this process largely depends on the patient’s desire to cope with the bipolar disorder and his/her sense of responsibility towards the same.
2. Recording the Mood Swings
In the second step, CBT involves monitoring and grading the moods of the patient. For this the doctor gives the patients several worksheets that the patient fills in regularly. In these sheets the patient records his/her moods for the day. They also file the other important details like for how many hours did they sleep, the level of anxiety, the level of irritability they felt. Especially the patients of Bipolar II Disorder must record all these details daily as in that case the mood cycles very frequently.
3. Patient does the Homework
Once the therapist is able to understand the mood cycles of the patient of bipolar disorder, the next step in CBT is for the patient. Here the therapist gives some reading material to the patient for him/her to understand exactly how our thoughts effect our emotions. This is done by the patient filling in the worksheets and once he/she understands the drill, they would be able to practice through altering their thoughts in far more rational way. Their emotions then become very rational, thereby decreasing the number & severity of the depressive & manic episodes.
4. Recognizing the Triggers
Further, you must be able to know the triggers in the case you are curing. Triggers are the basically any emotional or physical clicks that arouse a depressive or a manic episode like emotions, thoughts, times of the year, situations, environments, events, etc. Once the patient starts understanding and recognizing their triggers, he/she would then be able to learn to avoid them entirely, henceforth decreasing the severity & number of the depressive & manic episodes.
However, as the medical experts advice, in case you are not satisfied with the treatment being given to you, you must discuss it with your doctor and make sure to change the method of treatment as per the medical advisors. Ultimately the effectiveness and success of the treatment of bipolar disorder lays in the hands of patients suffering with the ailment.