Articles and blog posts relating to the treatment of bipolar disorder through medication.
If you feel like you want to “throw in the towel” when dealing with medications, it’s important to remember it can take time to find success. There’s a few things to consider when it comes to taking medication: I’ve been taking medication—you know, I’ve been taking a mood stabilizer, an anti-psychotic, otherwise known as...
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My medication non-compliance led to a devastating psychotic break in 2015. But through family intervention and a return to compliance, I am now healthy, employed, and advocating for others. Here’s what I’ve learned. By Emily Allen In 2013, fed up with weight gain as a side effect, I decided to stop taking a key...
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No one loves needing to take daily medications for a chronic condition, but confronting your barriers to adherence assures a better outcome for bipolar disorder. By Robin L. Flanigan Making the decision to go on medication for bipolar disorder—and sticking with it to find some-thing that works—can be a hard-fought battle. It’s common to...
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The FDA has approved Abilify MyCite, a pill with a sensor that digitally tracks if patients have ingested their medication U.S. Food and Drug Administration—November 13, 2017, Silver Spring, MD— The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first drug in the U.S. with a digital ingestion tracking system. Abilify MyCite (aripiprazole tablets...
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Taking medication for bipolar disorder takes commitment. You may find yourself measuring the pros and cons. For me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. By Susie Johnson Each week I feel like a pharmacist. I pull out my shoe box, sort through peach-colored bottles, and put my medicine into my weekly pill boxes. I...
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When you have bipolar disorder, no medication can truly change your attitude or thinking, as I learned from my late father. It takes hard work. By Brad Hoefs My dad was the first person I knew who had bipolar disorder. It was back in 1975 that he had a “nervous breakdown.” For months he...
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Some people may think that the side effects of antidepressants can be pretty innocuous as they are commonly prescribed, but for me, the side effects can be rough. Earlier this year I wrote about the impacts of taking anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers, so now I’m going to write about the third type of medication...
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Despite advances, diagnosis and treatment of bipolar still has a long way to go before capable, customized, compassionate care is the norm. By Stephen Propst Today we have more reliable medications, with fewer side effects, than ever before. People with mental health issues can choose from every imaginable form of therapy, from interpersonal to...
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Though I experience few side effects from mood stabilizers, taking these medications still impacts some areas of my life. In my last blog post, ‘6 Things I didn’t Realize About Taking Antipsychotics’, I wrote about some of the impacts that taking antipsychotics can have on your life. But I don’t just take antipsychotics for...
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When I was first put on antipsychotics I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, but now I know that there was a lot I didn’t realize about taking them. On the same day I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder I was put onto an antipsychotic. That was over three years ago. Now I take...
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