Epilepsy Talk
Bipolar versus epilepsy. Are they related? | March 5, 2024
Yes they’re related. And they even overlap. Although one doesn’t necessarily cause the other.
A psychiatrist might tell you that you are bipolar. A neurologist might diagnose you with psychogenic nonepileptic seizure (PNES).
So which is it?
“I have bipolar as well as epilepsy. I can tell you it is a rollercoaster of a ride.
You will have to try and test the meds to see if they will work.
I have experienced what has worked for the seizures does not work for my bipolar.
I believe they are linked together, just for the reason my bipolar spun out of control after I had 3 grand mals.” Marchetti.
Is epilepsy a mental illness? No, it’s not.
But it can place people at a greater risk of having a mood disorder like bipolar disorder.
We’re finding more and more that mood disorders and epilepsy co-occur.
But there’s still a lot that we don’t understand about the connection between the two.
Symptoms of bipolar disorder may come and go.
People typically exhibit depressed and manic symptoms separately, but both can occur simultaneously.
Different subtypes of the disorder also exist. The depressed symptoms can be very severe and lead to problems at work or at school.
They may also cause problems with relationships and even lead to thoughts of suicide.
In addition, patients may sometimes lose touch with reality, which is referred to as psychosis.
Those going through the manic stage may be aggressive, hyper, impulsive and difficult to deal with and calm down.
They’re on a “mission”. Don’t stand in their way.
Anticonvulsants, or anti-seizure medications, are the mood stabilizers.
We think the way that they work is to make the nerve cells in the brain less excitable.
And once the person is less excitable it’s less likely that mania or depression is going to occur.
It’s also important to note, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Epilepsy Behavior, that there is a genetic component to both diseases.
Bipolar disorder is related to family history, as are some types of epilepsy.
According to the study, “It’s imperative to conduct an investigation of the patient’s personal history and family psychiatric history to minimize the risk of potential psychiatric symptoms.”
According to Raphael Wald, a neuropsychologist at Marcus Neuroscience Institute, in patients with epilepsy, there’s a one in three chance that they will also have a mood disorder.
Like epilepsy, bipolar disorder is a chemical imbalance that requires proper medication.
And there are solutions.
Several anticonvulsant medications are recognized as mood stabilizers to treat or prevent mood episodes in bipolar disorder.
At first, anticonvulsants were prescribed only for people who did not respond to lithium.
Today, they are often prescribed alone, with lithium, or with an antipsychotic drug to control mania.
They work simply by calming hyperactivity in the brain.
For this reason, some of these drugs are used to treat epilepsy, prevent migraines and treat other brain disorders.
They often are prescribed for people who have rapid cycling — four or more episodes of mania and depression in a year.
These anticonvulsants include:
- carbamazepine (Tegretol)
- divalproex sodium, valproic acid, or valproate sodium ( Depakote, Depakene
- lamotrigine (Lamictal).
“I also have temporal lobe epilepsy and am bipolar. I take depakote and tegretol, both also used for the treatment of bipolar and use ativan as needed.
I am lucky in that the same meds that treat my epilepsy also treat the bipolar and the as needed medicine, the ativan, is also used for both conditions.
The combination works really well on the bipolar. I have breakthrough moods and depression but they are mild compared to what they were before being put on this combo.” Spiz
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Resources:
https://www.epilepsy.com/stories/public-enemy-no-1-depression-and-mood-disorders-people-epilepsy
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-link-between-epilepsy-and-bipolar-disorder
https://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/anticonvulsant-medication
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Epilepsy Talk 
I also have epilepsy and OCD, I wish they would do more research on the gaba connection it just makes a lot of sense to me. Suffering with both disorders is depressing, might as well add that diagnosis too.🙄
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Comment by Wiz/jack — March 11, 2024 @ 7:36 AM
Some people say: “Despite previous marketing claims, there’s no evidence that gabapentin is a useful treatment for bipolar disorder.”
While others claim:
“Gabapentin may be effective for treating depression and anxiety, among other things.
Although gabapentin was traditionally used to treat seizures, it is now sometimes used as a mood stabilizer for depression and bipolar disorder because it calms neurons in the brain, and it may be effective for anxiety too.
Clinical trials even found that gabapentin may be a good alternative to benzodiazepine when it comes to treating generalized anxiety disorder.
Gabapentin may particularly be beneficial for people who only respond partially to other mood stabilizers.”
How can you argue with clinical trials??
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Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — March 11, 2024 @ 9:10 AM