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Suggest Treatment For Depression When Suffering From Bipolar Mood Disorder
Question: My sister is 53 and has been diagnosed as bipolar. She made several attempts on her life about 7 years ago but none since then. Nowadays her medication keeps her fairly stable and she has changed her life, having divorced an alcoholic husband. She still gets depressed and feels suicidal thoughts and the desire to self-harm, but she says she can control them with her medication. I'm worried that she will return to self-harming and suicide attempts. Am I being foolish or does it depend on her medicine? Can she expect a reasonable life span of 80 years.
Brief Answer:
Need to be watchful
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through.
The symptoms that you have stated are due to the depressive phase of the bipolar mood disorder. Mood stabilizers such as valproate, lithium, carbamazepine and antipsychotics like quetiapine, olanzapine or aripiprazole are good drugs for this purpose. Now if she is getting these occasional suicidal thoughts then it would be wise to get her medications revised. As such lithium is known to have diminished effect with time and needs augmentation with another mood stabilizer.
As of now, you can augment her current treatment with cognitive behavioural therapy. This therapy is taken by either a psychologist or a psychiatrist in which the therapist identifies impaired cognitions (Thoughts) and try to correct them. They are 15-20 min weekly session and there should be around 8-10 sessions to help you with your illness.
However if the suicide thoughts still persist then medicines needs to be reviewed.
Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link:
bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy
Wish you good health,
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.
Need to be watchful
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through.
The symptoms that you have stated are due to the depressive phase of the bipolar mood disorder. Mood stabilizers such as valproate, lithium, carbamazepine and antipsychotics like quetiapine, olanzapine or aripiprazole are good drugs for this purpose. Now if she is getting these occasional suicidal thoughts then it would be wise to get her medications revised. As such lithium is known to have diminished effect with time and needs augmentation with another mood stabilizer.
As of now, you can augment her current treatment with cognitive behavioural therapy. This therapy is taken by either a psychologist or a psychiatrist in which the therapist identifies impaired cognitions (Thoughts) and try to correct them. They are 15-20 min weekly session and there should be around 8-10 sessions to help you with your illness.
However if the suicide thoughts still persist then medicines needs to be reviewed.
Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
In future if you wish to contact me directly, you can use the below mentioned link:
bit.ly/dr-srikanth-reddy
Wish you good health,
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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