Substance Abuse & Bipolar Disorder

Substance abuse occurs in 30-60% of patients with bipolar disorder & is more likely to co-exist with bipolar illness than with any other Axis I psychiatric disorder. Citing data from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Study, Kathleen Brady MD, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, noted that alcohol & other drug abuse are not only common among bipolar patients, but may contribute significantly to treatment resistance & poor outcome. Dr. Brady reports that 2-4% of alcoholics & up to 30% of cocaine abusers meet the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder, placing them at significantly higher risk for bipolar illness when compared to the general population. When one also considers the bipolar spectrum disorders (e.g., cyclothymia, hyperthymia & hypomania), the prevalence rates among substance-abusing patients are even higher. Diagnostic Challenges

Please read the rest of this article here (http://open-mind.org/News/DA/6.htm)

Hi I love to have any info on this...so if anyone has any holla back please!

Shelby-
Thanks so much. I'd like to read the rest of the article but the link didn't work. Where can I find it?

If you do a google search on: Kathleen Brady MD, PhD or Epidemiologic Catchment Area; you will come up with articles. If you need any help finding some please give me a holler and I will help!!

Patti

This makes sense to me because they are self-medicating both the depressive and the manic states.

guess i need to get in on this...cause we self-medicate our bp and other illnesses, like ADD, anxiety, etc.

great article, i am gonna cut and paste the info to my bipolar support group thread. thanks

so here is a question for discusion...why do u suppose bipolar people self medicate with illegal drugs? and why is cocaine the number one use? are the drugs in the pharmacy really not worth the trouble and side effects...or are there really no good bipolar drugs out there?

so here is a question for discusion...why do u suppose bipolar people self medicate with illegal drugs? and why is cocaine the number one use? are the drugs in the pharmacy really not worth the trouble and side effects...or are there really no good bipolar drugs out there?

I have a couple theories regarding bipolar medications and self-medication.

My daughter is bipolar. It took me 4 years to convince someone that was the problem. Including my daughter... Everyone kept saying she was depressed, they wouldnt listen to the fact that she might stay up for two-to-three days rearranging her bedroom. Then to get her to be convinced that she needed the medication, that was another battle.

For her the medications work great, provided she takes them. She does not like the side effects and still struggles with them but she knows she feels better in general if she is on the meds. The side effects are not that bad, but she thinks there should be a miracle cure. If she doesnt take them for three days in a row, we start all over.

Part of the problem is that it is so dificult to get mental health care, and its virtually impossible to get inpatient treatment for mental health if the person is at all functional. Doctors tend to treat most bipolar as depression, and do not treat the entire mental health package. People who are bipolar tend to like the hypomanic states, where they are energetic and feeling good but not completely out of control (manic). My daughter says if she was only in a hypomanic state all the time she would never take medication. Cocaine mimics the feeling of the hypomania, and it feels good and familiar, and it give the person some feeling of control of their bipolar condition.

Same with alcohol, it tends to combat the extreme mania since its a depressant. Helps them feel a little more even. Same with marijuana.

I'm not a doctor, but I have a BSN with a minor in pschology, not to mention the family (hands on) experience. I have been there...

Me too I've been there and I'm still there. I have Bipolar II, I have experienced many many cycles and hypomania and drug addiction.

It's important to find out if your bipolar is secondary to your addiction, or if it's the other way around. Many people have bipolar symptoms from using street drugs and may even begin an onset of the disorder. If you have substance abuse due to bipolar disorder and you are trying to get symptom relief, it doesn't matter which drug you choose if it masks relieving your symptoms then thats what you will use. It's not a very wise choice I have found for myself.

I used marijuana for a lot of years to relieve my bipolar symptoms and I truly believed that it was helping my symptoms. I'm really not sure to this day if it helped more than my medications or not back then, but now I know that for me I am doing much better without any street drugs and just my prescribed medications.

It took doctors many many years to properly diagnose my bipolar disorder. When I was a child I was diagnosed with depression/manic depression but was left untreated properly but I don't think the medications are at fault, I know now that it takes a long time sometimes for the doctors to make a proper diagnosis. Partly because bipolar is so hard to understand and partly because there are several types of bipolar disorder. It takes years to diagnose the type of illness you have (they mostly see it over a period of cycles in your life). Once a diagnosis is properly made then it takes trying different medications to see if they relieve the symptoms. Everyone has a different chemical body make up so no two people will get the same symptom relief from the same medications. It took years to find the proper combination of medications to relieve my symptoms. A huge factor was once I got into my mid teens I tried marijuana and it seemed to relieve most of my symptoms so any medication they prescribed was off balance just from that once I stopped trying to self medicate years and a lot of suffering later when I used only my prescribed medications they were able to be work properly.

I was addicted to a couple different drugs. My bipolar disorder is genetic and my addiction is also genetic. Both diseases/disorders run in my family most times it is pure H*ll to live with. There is never a time when things just go alright for a long period my med.'s always have be to watched and adjusted if needed but I do what I have to, in order to get by.

Finding out if you are first and addict or first bipolar is important so the prescribing physician will have proper knowledge of you condition in order to properly treat it (believe me it's in your best interest to be truthful).

There is a web site www.About.com (http://www.About.com) type in bipolar disorder upper right hand corner, you will see it has a lot of good up to date information on the disorder. It even explains the brain chemical that is not properly functioning and why in bipolar disorder. Also if you are like me and have dual diagnosis (bipolar & have substance abuse) it explains about that as well. I really like the part that lists personality markers in bipolar people. People wrote down symptoms and things that mark their bipolar traits. It's very interesting to me. I can identify with a lot of them. Hope you can check it out.

I think that people with bipolar disorder who use cocaine may find that it numbs a part of the brain which may bring short term relief but I am willing to bet it causes more problems than it's worth. Cocaine of course was orginally used in this country as an anaesthestic so maybe that is why some people find relief using it. The long term effects of using cocaine will be detrimental if you have bipolar disorder I promise you that.

Certain drugs will cause an onset of bipolar disorder (if you weren't previously) like for example Meth., it is almost an epidemic in this country today and will cause many different psychotic and psychiatric disorders even and especially after ceasing to use it. I know people who've never regained their minds again after using it.

I would stick with the prescription medication for bipolar-I, & bipolar-II for sure or any mind illness. The medications have come a long way and for me it's the only relief I have found to truly work *I'm a high functioning bipolar disorder patient* some aren't as fortunate.

Hope that helps:)

Lots of good info here. What i want to know is what makes a pt with bp start smoking weed again after 6 months clean. Not even 2 hours out and its so frustrating.....