Image via Wikipedia
Manic depression, or bipolar disorder, is getting more and more common in today’s societies. Treatments are tried and kept or tossed out after studies are proved or disproved, and now there’s a new medicine on the market to treat the disorder. Lithium has been the treatment of choice, however, it isn’t well liked because of the side effects.
Now there’s a drug that has fewer side effects and its being liked by both doctors and patients with bipolar disorder. It’s called Valproate and is the first new treatment for bipolar disorder in 20 years. The study on it, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and conducted by Dr. Charles M. Bowden, MD, proved Valproate to be successful in treating manic depression, but the medicine was originally formulated as an anti-convulsive drug successfully used on epilepsy patients.
Lithium’s side effects leave it the least favorite, but it’s been the only drug doctors had to turn to. A good 40 percent of epilepsy patients can’t tolerate Lithium, and of those who do tolerate it, a third pay a pretty big price in side effects. Nausea, trembling, lowering of proper kidney function, decrease thyroid hormone (in 1 out of 10 people), getting up several times to urinate at night, water retention (Edema) and weight gain. Then, there is also slurred speech, disorientation and wobbliness or unsteadiness.
Some doctors have even noticed that over long periods of time lithium-taking manic depressive patients lose their creativity and spontaneity. Most of them lose certain skills, and what came easy before is now tough to accomplish. It’s enough to keep people from seeing the doctor and taking their medicine.
There aren’t many drugs that don’t have any side effects whatsoever. Valproate also has its share of them, but they are not as common nor as severe, with some of them being as follows:
- Change in appetite
- Weakness
- Weight loss
- Vomiting
- Trouble sleeping
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Stomach cramps and/or pain
- Mild pain or redness at injection site
- Nausea
- Headache
- Indigestion
There are more severe symptoms, too, but they rarely happen to anyone. Any side effects usually are outweighed by the benefits the drug provides, and for some it‘s what keeps them going. More studies are being done all the time, and maybe variations of Valproate will come without side effects as technology and medicine advance.
