Treatment of manic-depressive illness

Depression is very common, and it is also one of the mental illnesses with a high incidence rate. It is very painful to suffer from depression, especially manic depression. Patients will have a lot of things piled up in their hearts. If they do not receive timely psychological counseling, it may lead to suicide in severe cases. Because more and more people are committing suicide due to depression, we should not ignore the treatment of manic depression.

Depression can also manifest itself in many symptoms, and manic depression is one of them. Generally, the patient's early symptoms are not obvious, but early treatment is most beneficial for recovery. The more you know about the treatment of manic depression, the less pain the patient will suffer.

1. If the diagnosis of manic depression has been confirmed. Then you should first apply 'emotional stabilizers'. There are four types of mood stabilizers (formerly known as antimanic drugs):

1. Lithium carbonate: Lithium carbonate has been used to treat mania since 1949. Since its therapeutic effect often takes about 2 weeks to show up, some doctors at the time were eager for results and tried to increase the dosage, resulting in many cases of poisoning and death; this made the "lithium carbonate treatment of mania" take a long detour. Later, with blood lithium measurements used as a basis for adjusting therapeutic doses, cases of lithium carbonate poisoning became rare. The requirements for blood lithium testing are relatively high: blood must be drawn 12 hours after taking the medication (for example, if the medication was taken at 8 o'clock last night, then blood must be drawn at 8 o'clock this morning), and the difference cannot be too large, otherwise the test results will be unreliable.

Second, these drugs often do not work immediately. Therefore, if the patient is in a manic phase with high emotions, doctors often feel that "distant water cannot quench immediate thirst" and have to resort to antipsychotic drugs to temporarily suppress the excitement. In the past we often used clozapine. Due to its many side effects, in recent years, doctors have switched to olanzapine, with a dosage of 10-20 mg per day. Once the excitement improves, you can reduce the dosage and gradually stop taking the medicine within 2 to 3 weeks. Some doctors will cite the fact that the FDA has approved olanzapine or other drugs for the treatment of manic depression as a basis for their use of olanzapine. In fact, the FDA's approval only allows these drugs to be used in the manic phase of bipolar disorder, not to say that they are mood stabilizers like sodium valproate. Whether they can be used as maintenance medications for manic-depressive illness remains an open question.

4. It should be noted that if the patient is indeed suffering from manic depression and is in the depressive phase, he should not be treated with antidepressants alone, as this will often lead to a manic episode ('turning to mania'). However, if an antidepressant is used concurrently with a mood stabilizer, the patient will not develop a manic episode. We should not give antidepressants alone to patients with manic depression for a long time, otherwise they will have more than 4 attacks a year, forming a 'rapid cycle' and causing difficulties in treatment.

The pressure in today's society is very high. If you encounter setbacks and difficulties in life, your emotions will be greatly affected. Long-term depression will cause depression. This disease is very scary. It is important to treat it as early as possible. Understand that the treatment of manic depression is the responsibility of the patient and his family. Don't let this disease deprive you of your right to a normal life.