My husband is diagnosed as bipolar. He is under treatment. Taking valkem 250 mg 5 ml daily and sizodon ls 1 tab daily. Now day he has loss of appetite and slowly. What to do now.

Question

It is difficult to say, as there may be several reasons for loss of appetite. Your husband is taking valkem 250, so I am considering he is in maintenance phase. In bipolar as it suggests there may be periodic episodes of mania, hypomania or depression. Loss of appetite may be an early sign of relapse. So need more information to rule out such.

Anirban Datta · Accepted Answer

It is difficult to say, as there may be several reasons for loss of appetite. Your husband is taking valkem 250, so I am considering he is in maintenance phase. In bipolar as it suggests there may be periodic episodes of mania, hypomania or depression. Loss of appetite may be an early sign of relapse. So need more information to rule out such.

Shoeb Khan · Answer

Kindly check if it's not the onset of a depressive episode. Check for other symptoms of depression like low mood, decreased interest in activities, withdrawn behaviour etc.

Keshava Pai · Answer

May be getting into depression or else may be medication induced side effects which can be managed. No worries.

Prof. Jagadeesan M.S. · Answer

Usually these medications increase appetite and people complain of weight gain. So it is unlikely the reason for it to me medications. You have to consult your psychiatrist or physician and get blood tests done to find out the reason for the weight loss. Good luck.

Saul Pereira · Answer

I don't know if he is doing any exercise. He must be active and get into a vigorous exercise program, unless advised not to. It is also adviseable for him to seek the help of a counselor and not to rely only on medication: it is in the combination that he will get the best results. Even so, it is a long term treatment and both of you must be patient and very cooperative. There are certain adaptations that will suit him during the elation phase and there are certain behaviors that are required during the depressed phases. In the meantime, he can do certain things that will give him benefits anyway. Emotional therapy will alleviate a lot of the problems faced in this condition because it is a mood disorder. He needs to particularly look at his levels of anger both for its reasonableness and to express it in appropriate manner. I suspect that much of this anger may have origins in early childhood that he may never be aware of. Talk to his parents and explore that angle. This information will help the counselor too. Also he will need to check whether there is any genetic factor involved. He must exercise regularly, eat healthily and sleep normally too. If his motivation and cooperation is good much can be achieved. He must have a time-structured schedule filled with interesting and reasonable activities and it must be monitored for compliance and delivery. The reason I say this is that many times he will be inclined to have grandiose notions and confidently believe that he can do without the medication. This will set him back many months in the treatment and delay and sabotage the recovery: forewarned he is forearmed. If this combination of medication with therapy is maintained for at least three years without any episodes or breakdowns, it is possible to taper the medication in consonance with the doctor.

Yogendra Singh · Answer

He needs assessment. He could be developing depressive symptoms or may have some side effect related issues.

Sheetal Agrawal · Answer

Hello Lybrate user, bipolar disorder is combination of mania & depression. Some times patient will have the symptoms of mania & sometimes depression.in depression patient will having low appetite, low mood ,no interest, insomnia etc if you see any changes in patients mood need to immediately consult with your psychiatrist. So he can prescribe the medicines according to current symptoms of patient.in psychiatric disease regular follow up with psychiatrist & regular intake of medicine is very important. Which will help to patient to recover from the disease. Thank you.