🚀 go-pugleaf

Someone on another newsgroup recommended topiramate 
to me as an alternative to lithium (since lithium has
been adversely affecting my kidneys) partly because
topiramate causes weight loss which would offset
olanzapine-induced weight gain.

However, Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topiramate says "In 2006, 
a Cochrane review concluded that there is insufficient 
evidence on which to base any recommendations regarding 
the use of topiramate in any phase of bipolar illness."

Do you know of any more recent research on the 
use of topiramate for bipolar disorder?  Also,
do any of you have any first hand experience 
prescribing topiramate and like to comment on 
its use for bipolar disorder?

Also, again, can you recommend other alternatives
to lithium that do not adversely affect the
kidneys and ideally do not cause weight gain?
Right now, though I am in the queue to see a
psychiatrist, I am being treated by my family
doctor and a kidney specialist I will see on Dec. 11.

Currently I am on 900 mg lithium carbonate at
bedtime for a lithium level of 0.7, and also
10 mg olanzapine at bedtime.

-- 
David Dalton  dalton@nfld.com   http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/nf.html Newfoundland&Labrador Travel & Music
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
   "Here I go again...back into the flame" (Sarah McLachlan)