Bipolar mood switching with antidepressants

[embleton]

There is a great deal of research that has been done on the very subject of whether antidepressants should ever be prescribed for those with bipoler of any description, even bipolar depression associated with BP2. It surprises me whenever I hear of anyone taking antidepressants who has a bipolar diagnosis, even when they taking mood stabilisers, which was once thought to eliminate the chance and protect against the switch into rapid cycling, hypomania, mania, mixed states or even psychosis, at its worst. Does anyone have any ideas whether there really is any guaranteed method of protecting against these switches of mood when treating longterm depression associated with bipolar depression with these psychotropic's?

I've taken antidepressants in the past and have banned myself from these psychotropics for I have switched into the aforementioned states, on more than one occasion even though I was suffering from severe depression with my diagnoses of bipolar and taking mood stabilisers, so do have first hand experience of the subject.

http://www.bpso.org/ads.htm

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/bipolar ... epressants