Beware of Grapefruits and Pomelos in Drug Interactions

Grapefruits and pomelos may cause accumulation of the drugs that have to be cleared (metabolized) through the liver enzyme CYP450 3A4. Many psychotropics and antidepressants used by psychiatrists to treat conditions including depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety are metabolized through CYP450 3A4. This means you have to be very careful if you are used to [...]

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Abilify in Bipolar Disorder: Doctors say, “We Need More (Good) Data!”

Medical researchers are asking for better data on aripiprazole (brand name, Abilify) based on the latest PLoS publication, “Aripiprazole in the Maintenance Treatment of Bipolar Disorder: A Critical Review of the Evidence and Its Dissemination into the Scientific Literature”. Basically the title is translated as, “objectively looking at Abilify’s use long term in bipolar disorder.” [...]

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What It Feels Like to Live With Depression (and the Difference from Bipolar Disorder)

I’ll provide some of the “old scripts” that I’ve lived with personally when I suffered from clinical depression in the 1990s. These have included: “If I were to disappear from the world today, no one would notice or even care. So what’s preventing me from turning my car off the side of the ramp.” “I [...]

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“Jane for Windows” – A Window Between Worlds Fundraising

A Window Between Worlds (AWBW) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded to use art as a healing tool to help victims of domestic violence find their “voice” so they can express what words cannot say. I will be using this donation thermometer for the next few months to track my progress in helping AWBW raise [...]

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Quora Posts on Depression and Bipolar Disorder

I’m active on Quora these days, since it’s become one of my favorite “thinking places” with a rich diversity of people and very bright and curious minds. There are various topics relating to depression and bipolar disorder on Quora that you may find interesting. I don’t answer all of them, but if I wrote an [...]

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Why I Wrote “The Youngest Light”

When I first set out to write this book, I thought I was writing a different book. I thought I would write about my journey through clinical depression, how I was helped by medication and psychotherapy, and specifically, how the strange dreams (often spiritual with animal themes) I was having played a large part in [...]

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Antidepressant-Suicide-Risk Paradox

Here’s a great question asked on Quora: “If antidepressants are supposed to make you less depressed, why would they carry an increased suicide risk?” Supportive of the answer regarding an increased motivation that has been created by the antidepressant in the system, another supporting observation to the “activating the motivation necessary to carry out suicide [...]

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