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Q: ADD or Bipolar? Meds
My husband was diagnosed with ADD when he was a child and a couple of years ago
was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He had not been taking his medication
and got in trouble and is currently in prison. The doctor in the prison
told him that he is not bipolor he has a severe case of ADD. I
have two questions:
1. How can someone be properly diagnosed to figure out if they have ADD or if
they are bipolar?
2. If he is not bipolar and has ADD is it necessary for him to be taking
medication for bipolar disorder? He is currently taking Depakote,
Wellbutrin and Neurotin. He has tried a number of different medications
and this combination seems to be working the best for him.
Dear Ms. S' --
Fair question to ask, and the doc's right to wonder if there's a simpler
explanation than two conditions together. Here's an essay I wrote for
primary care docs' facing the question of "ADD
or bipolar"?
If he's "not bipolar", then theoretically no,
he wouldn't need the Depakote (which has not been shown to be of value in the
treatment of ADD, to my knowledge). However, you might read over the
section of my website on
diagnosis
of BPII, to see that in my view the question should not be "bipolar, or
not?" but rather "how bipolar might he be? just a
little?" And that changes this discussion quite a bit, in my
view.
Dr. Phelps
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