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Antidepressant Controversies

A short book on antidepressants in bipolar disorder

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Do They Even Work in Bipolar Disorder?
  3. Do They Cause Mania?
  4. Antidepressants as Mood Destabilizers
  5. Tolerance and Kindling: Can Antidepressants Stop Working?
  6. Continue or Taper Them?

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2Comments

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  1. 1
    M. on July 25, 2021 at 11:59 am
    Reply

    Thank you, Dr. Phelps, for your extensive work on bipolar disorder and the content here at your website. I was also excited to see your Psychiatric Times article about the benefits of lithium for memory.

    Lithium, even at a low dose, is outstanding for eliminating suicidal thoughts. As indicated in “Antidepressant Controversies”, anti-depressants caused manic episodes for me.

    Has there been any research to support or refute the 1995 research that stated lithium increased the proliferation of hormone-dependent breast cancer cells?

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7559794/

    I would like to resume taking lithium for mood and memory, but this research from 1995 concerns me. Thank you, Dr. Phelps, for any information or comments on this topic.

    • 2
      Chris Aiken on December 4, 2021 at 8:27 pm
      Reply

      Great point. You should review that with your physician if you are in treatment for breast cancer. On pubmed articles like that you can look at the “cited by” articles on the bottom to find updates – there were only 10 articles citing it and none found further breast cancer risk. In recent years we have had good news about lithium on the cancer front – such as an article suggesting it decreases the risk of cancer 20%, possibly by protecting DNA from damage. You can learn more about that from Dr. Post’s article https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28976944/ or search his website (www.bipolarnews.org)

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