Has Anyone Heard of Smoking Marijuana for Bipolar Symtoms?

Just curious have they done a trial of Trileptal? It's commonly used in adult bipolar, I'm not that familiar with adolescent psych medications. Just a thought that came to mind after posting.

((( hugs )))

[quote=earle58]her doctor will not budge.
also the social worker is having trouble placing her in an acute residential program and/or a substance abuse program because dd has assaulted 2 pts. during this hospitalization.

<<KEEP on them. Do YOUR research of rtc's that she could be placed at. What funding source is the SW using? Your insurance? Any state money? Go from there and do online searches. >>>

she had been on zoloft and strattera and this doctor dc'd them, stating these meds probably induced much of her mania. i agreed with him, but why didn't the other 5 psychiatrists know this? i'm the one who requested the strattera in hopes on containing her impulses, as she was diagnosed w/adhd when she was 4 yo. the doctor told me it was probably early onset bipolar rather than the adhd.

<<there are sooo many clueless NEGLIGENT pdocs out there. I have been through the ringer also>>>

so since there is no program that is willing to take her, i told her that if she wasn't placed by friday, we would bring her home and she'd have to attend an outpatient program, 9-5 x 5 days/week. it's supposed to be very focused and intense.

'<<REFUSE to take her home. We did this. I would state that you are terrified if she comes home that she will harm herself or others. Which would it be for her. Be specific. Talk to the RN's and ask their name, you document who you talked to and ask them to document this in their nursing notes. Tell the pdoc this also. This will put their rears on the line if she has troubles. I have totally been there and we had to play hardball with the pdoc and even the medical director of the insurance company.>>>


yet even after these assaults, her doctor still refused to change her regimen and honestly, i'm petrified of bringing her home.

<<Do NOT take her home. Tell them you are terrified for your safety due to her instability. Make sure they document this in her chart talk to the RNs to do this and the SW.>>

i need to find another psychiatrist for the one she has now (when she's not hospitalized) is very passive and conservative. dd also got furious w/me last noc when i told her that she had bipolar and it's a life long illness. she screamed at me, denying she was sick. when she is manic, that is when she is most self-destructive. no euphoria or delusions of grandeur. she cuts herself, burns herself, etoh poisoning, reckless w/no insight into anything. she's filled w/rage and it's out of control. yet when she crashes, she still uses to get herself up and she loves cocaine. i am just so furious and distraught over the dismissiveness of the medical teams. i'll tell you, the system sucks and i have no where to turn.

<<Do NOT take her home. A suggestion, we were in this spot more than once. Call your state rep and tell of your problem and see if your state rep can pull strings to get your dd covered under your Dept of Mental health. Our state rep was able to cut through the red tape in a day. Also our son ended up in the state child psychiatric hospital and then then their rtc. It was the BEST placement and treatment he ever got. You can also consider using your school district as a source of help but this would be difficult and only for the bipolar for a residential stay however she is most likely to be in a locked facility until she is clean and stable. Most substance abuse programs have an open door which would never work for kids like hours. You need to emphasize that she needs to be stabilized for her bipolar in a longer term residential facility that also takes teens with a dual diagnosis and can give her treatment for both. >>>

<<<What state are you in? Go to www.conductdisorders.com and post on the general message board. These moms are a great source of information. >>

i'm going to now research the trileptal. thank you for listening and the heads up.

<<Depokate, trileptal NEVER touched my son lithium worked however if your dd is drug using or drinking it won't work thats why she needs a longer term stay at least of 2 months. My sons' last one was 10 months and he finally made improvements.>> Hold your ground Do NOT take her home. Look at your state laws and even talk to an attorney. In our state they cannot charge you for refusing to take your child home from the hospital. I would emphasize your FEAR for her life and your life if she comes home unstable such as this. I would also ask for thryoid level. I would also ask for a full psychological evaluation while she is in the hospital by a PHD psychologist. We refused to take our son home 3 times. Once he had just come home after in and out stays and the next day had an alcohol od with med interactions and ended up on a vent. I refused then. Another time after he was home from rtc, 3 hospital admits, cut his arms and got 60 stitches I refused and he went to the state facility. The last time the state hospital said he was ready to go home after 2 months. We managed to get a 2nd opinion from being on a waiting list with Dr. Barbara Geller at Wash U. She gave us a huge list of why he needed to stay. Again we refused to take him home. Since he had been out of our home for 30 days we had already got him "straight" medicaid for his disability this paid for his rtc stay of 10 months. Good luck to you. Read the Biplolar Child by Papolas also>>>>>

I"m sending some info that might help you in Boston for your daughter.

http://www.childrenshospital.org/new...blevel113.html

http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/publi...talhealth.html

Also call your local NAMI for help.

http://pfrr.org/advisoryboard.html

from your last post a substance abuse center is not the place for her but a psychiatric residential center that is therapeutic that also can give her therapy on substance abuse.

http://www.mental-disorder.net/wb/pa...tal-health.php

http://www.nmha.org/state/parity/parity_letter.cfm
http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu/

http://hms.harvard.edu/admissions/de...age=affiliates

http://www.namimass.org/

http://mass.gov/portal/site/massgovp...th&sid=Eeohhs2


http://mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dmh/sta...plan_05_07.doc

From this report:However you do NOT Have to give custody to get your dd care. You need to look into this from DMH and I would advise help from your state rep or go up the political ladder. Good luck********

. In SFY'01, the legislature appropriated $10 million to EOHHS to develop services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance unable to be discharged from hospitals for lack of appropriate placements ("stuck kids"). DMH and DSS jointly developed two Behavioral Intensive Residential Treatment programs for difficult-to-manage adolescents in DSS custody and created Enhanced Therapeutic Foster Care for younger children in DSS custody. DMH increased funding for residential placements. In addition, funds were used to increase child psychiatry staff time in each DMH Area and for DSS to hire a clinical coordinator for each of its Regions to facilitate hospital discharges.

I am not in the nursing field, but as 64-year-old bipolar male, I would like to add my experience to this discussion. Although I can trace manic/depressive mood swings back to childhood, and have been seeing psychologists, physicians, and psychiatrists off and on since college for depression, it was only in the early 90’s that I was finally diagnosed with bipolar. I have been unable to tolerate any of a long list of medications, including lithium, and have found that I can only get relief from the depression cycle by smoking marijuana.

I have an MBA from a good school and decades of a professional career in top Fortune companies. However, this disease has left me with the loss of friends and family and bankruptcy. I am troubled that the medical community is “gun shy” about seriously investigating the marijuana/bipolar connection due to public hysteria over this illegal substance.

I just Googled “marijuana+bipolar” and almost one million hits appear. A recent NIH study reported that bipolar appears in various forms and severity in about 1 in every 25 American adults at some point in their lives. This disease not only alters the quality of life of the sufferers but also destroys relationships and impacts the productivity of a significant number in our society.

I plead with the medical community to be open-minded and to push for more studies to better understand how smoking marijuana interacts with bipolar in the hope that some improved treatment of bipolar disease will result, and that future generations will not experience the hell that currently millions of Americans live with.

I have been wondering if anyone heard of or did this. Nice to know one is never alone on the internet. I've seen a doctor for years and was just recently "diagnosed". I'm now on Depakote, which helps, but not enough. I don't want to up the dose. My liver is going to be fried by the time I'm 50. Marinol is out there. I've had a few elderly patients on it. Why not run trials and tests. This is a drug that has been around and used in various forms since the dawn of man. Why can't the mainstream medical community and the government see the good that it can do for people?

Leslie,

My sister has schizophrenia. She is now 50 and has been sick since she was 15.

There is NO QUESTION that she would have recovered had she remained weed-free. She would begin to recover, resume her drug use, and relapse. It induced hallucinations in her that exacerbated her delusions. Acute episodes stopped ending and her condition became chronic.

She has now been sick for so long that there is no question that she has suffered changes in her neural anatomy and biochemistry. There is also no question that the best we can hope for is continued suppression of the worst of her symptoms. The newer atypicals do not work on someone with these changes, and the older phenothiazines cause EPS and tardive dyskinesia. And Serentil was removed from the market because of our litigius society, and getting her stabilized after that was a two-year nightmare.

I believe this to be a very dangerous path to even consider.

I'm sorry you have this trouble, Leslie. I personally know pot makes me anti-social and paranoid. I don't know how it affects others.

Me, too.