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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Had Bipolar Disorder,prescribed Oleanz And Lithium.Stoped Oleanz Having Dizzines And Lack Of Sleep.What Could Be The Reason?

Hello Doctor, My husband had bipolar disorder and was prescribed 15mg of Oleanz. This was later tapered to 10 mg and along with it he has Lithium 900mg in a day (1 in the morning and 2 in the night of 300mg each). After 5 months, oleanz was reduced to 7.5mg. For 2 months,he reduced the dosage to 5mg and then to 2.5mg. Then doctor advised him to stop using oleanz and continue only with Lithium. For a total of 9 months, he has had Oleanz. Now, when he stopped Oleanz,he is having dizziness in the evening everyday and sleep has reduced very much. What could be the reason for this?
posted on Thu, 12 Jul 2012
Twitter Thu, 12 Jul 2012 Answered on
Twitter Mon, 16 Jul 2012 Last reviewed on
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General & Family Physician,  's  Response
Hi gkk1977.

Thanks for your question.

You probably know bipolar disorder is a mixture of mania and depression and the treatment of it is mood stabilizer group of drug and lithium is a mood stabilizer but in severe cases only mood stabilizer alone is not helpful so we use anti psychotic drugs for augmentation so doctor prescribe oleanz or olanzapine but our always target is to stop the mood stabilizer gradually as the patient get stable and your husband the same thing was done.

But oleanz is a very good sleep promoting agent so as he now stopped it he have sleep problem and dizziness.Nothing to be worried consult with your psychiatrist he will either start oleanz again in low doses like 2.5-5 mg daily or add some benzodiazepine for sleep promotion.

Best Wishes,

Dr Sourav Ganguly
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Had Bipolar Disorder,prescribed Oleanz And Lithium.Stoped Oleanz Having Dizzines And Lack Of Sleep.What Could Be The Reason?

Hi gkk1977. Thanks for your question. You probably know bipolar disorder is a mixture of mania and depression and the treatment of it is mood stabilizer group of drug and lithium is a mood stabilizer but in severe cases only mood stabilizer alone is not helpful so we use anti psychotic drugs for augmentation so doctor prescribe oleanz or olanzapine but our always target is to stop the mood stabilizer gradually as the patient get stable and your husband the same thing was done. But oleanz is a very good sleep promoting agent so as he now stopped it he have sleep problem and dizziness.Nothing to be worried consult with your psychiatrist he will either start oleanz again in low doses like 2.5-5 mg daily or add some benzodiazepine for sleep promotion. Best Wishes, Dr Sourav Ganguly