Question:
My desire is to get off all medications: Zoloft, Tegretol, Seroquel. Yesterday, I was in the ER. After a few hours of tests, I was told that I was dehydrated. The attending MD said that there is a rare side effect of Tegretol, which he thinks might be what happened to me. I was extremely low on sodium, and needed a liter of saline IV. I have been on Tegretol for 15 months. Usually I have some double vision, and some light-headedness, but what I had for 48 hours was awful. I had absolutely no energy.
I awoke today with light-headedness and doublevision, but after about 5 hours it went away. What can I expect? How often will this occur? I want to wean myself off all these drugs, and deal with my problems with a competent psychoanalyst. I have suffered two severe manic psychotic episodes in my life, and have a little schizophrenia which I am trying to deal with self-consciously. All the doctors ever want to do is put you on another drug, and I want no more of it. I am 50 years old, and have been on psycho-active drugs for 7 years.
I would like your input.
Dr. Heller's Answer:
Your desire to quit medications is common among patients with bipolar and schizophrenia. If you have bipolar and schizophrenia and you quit your medications you are very likely to bring profound misery to your life, including legal problems. It’s not sad that you need medications, you are incredibly lucky to live in a time when safe and effective medications are available to give you a chance for a normal life. If you had been born just 25 years earlier none of these medications would have been available, and you might have ended up in a long term psychiatric hospital.
Bipolar is likely a form of epilepsy, and it’s not going away. Schizophrenics without medications start to get hallucinations. They are both neurological disorders. Neither counseling nor psychoanalysis makes bipolar or schizophrenia go away.
Tegretol can rarely cause hyponatremia (low sodium), which means you’ll need to stop taking it. There are many other options.
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