Tag: Zyban

Latest Medications for Bipolar Affective Disorder

Bipolar affective disorder, also known as manic depression disorder, is a mental illness that causes the patient to experience mood swings or mood cycling, involving depressive episodes, mania episodes, and/or mixed episodes. There are many treatment options for bipolar affective disorder. The most successful treatments are a combination of medications and counseling or therapy.

Within the last five years there have been several substantial breakthroughs in research toward finding the true biological cause of bipolar affective disorder. This research has lead to the development of several new bipolar affective disorder medications. A few of the more popular latest medications for bipolar affective disorder are described below.

Abilify, or Aripiprazole, is an atypical anti-psychotic. It was approved for treatment of manic and mixed bipolar disorder episodes in 2004, and further approved as a maintenance medication for bipolar disorder in 2005. While most anti-psychotic medications work by shutting down dopamine receptors in the brain, Abilify works by making the dopamine receptors behave more normally. This stabilization makes this latest medication the ideal treatment for bipolar affective disorder.

Celexa is an antidepressant that has been around for several years. However, it has been used with increasingly more frequency in the last few years for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. This is due to the fact that Celexa has proven to be more selective than other anti-depressants. This essentially means that with Celexa, fewer bipolar patients need a mood stabilizer to prevent the antidepressant from sending them zooming into a manic episode. It has been extremely successful as a maintenance medication for bipolar affective disorder.

Geodon is an anti-psychotic that works as a mood stabilizer in bipolar affective disorder patients. The most exciting thing about this latest mood stabilizer medication is that it is not associated with weight gain. It works in much the same way as Zyprexa, which has been proven to be a very successful medication for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. However, unlike Zyprexa, side effects are fewer, milder, and do not include weight gain!

Wellbutrin, also sold as Zyban, was originally developed as a medication to help people stop smoking, in which it has been quite successful. In recent years, however, it has been discovered, quite by accident, that it is even more successful as an antidepressant when used as a medication for bipolar affective disorder. Chemically, it is unrelated to any other antidepressant, and it is unknown why it works so well with bipolar patients. One advantage to Wellbutrin is that it is a weight stable medication, meaning that patients will typically not see weight gain or weight loss.

As technology and research progresses, more effective medications for bipolar affective disorder are bound to be developed. Successful treatment of bipolar affective disorder is the goal of many researchers, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Discuss treatment options with your doctor often, and keep track of the latest developments in medications for bipolar affective disorder, so that you can appreciate the benefits of successful treatment for your bipolar affective disorder.

Medical Treatments for Bad Habits

Can bad habits be cured through medical treatments? Some say yes; they have succeeded in overcoming their addictions through science. There are many medical treatments for smokers and others who want to block their cravings.

For smokers, there is a variety of nicotine replacement options. Nicotine patches are probably the most popular for bad smoking habits. They can be adhered to the skin and forgotten until the end of the day. Or, if you are a person who suffers morning cravings, you can wear the patch all night. In any case, you do not have to be constantly thinking about your smoking.

Nicotine gum is also used by many people with these bad habits. It is handy for those who like to do something with their mouths. It cuts their urge to smoke at the same time. You just chew it for awhile, and then place it in between your cheek and gum. The nicotine will enter your bloodstream. Nicotine lozenges work much the same way.

You can get nicotine nasal sprays and nicotine inhalers through your doctor by prescription. The spray delivers an instant burst of nicotine to the system. The inhaler gives users an experience somewhat like smoking. It helps to wean you from your bad habits.

The downside of nicotine replacement is that you cannot cheat when you are using it. If you smoke when you are wearing a nicotine patch, for instance, you can trigger an episode of very high blood pressure at the very least. Your health will be in danger if you keep your bad habits up.

Many people now use prescription medications for relieving the destruction of these bad habits. Zyban has been used for several years now as a stop-smoking aid. This medication is also an anti-depressant. It helps to eliminate the urge to smoke.

It does not hurt your health (any more than smoking ever did) to smoke or use nicotine patches while using Zyban. However, many people report that they just do not feel like smoking any more.

Chantrix, or varenicline, is a newer medication for those who wish to quit smoking. It eases withdrawal symptoms and makes smoking less pleasurable afterwards. It has been shown to be even more effective than Zyban. It also has been show to help with alcohol addiction. This is helpful since many people drink and smoke in the same situations.

Addictive gambling is another of the bad habits that afflicts many adults. Gamblers seem to have cognitive distortions that prompt them to keep gambling until their money is gone. There may be some physical basis for this. There is now a new medication being studied that is supposed to curb those urges.

For some serious bad habits of opiate addiction, methadone has been used for over thirty years. It controls withdrawal symptoms that come on after quitting heroin, morphine, or similar drugs. It has a well-documented history of success.

While drug treatments of bad habits have their problems, there are some advantages, too. It seems that many of the treatments have helped people to stop addictive behaviors. This is not automatic, but comes with the medication along with a determined effort.

Addictive Bad Habits

The question is: “Are addictions actually bad habits?” According to the habit model of addiction, they are. This theory of addiction states that the only reason to say there is a difference is to persecute “addicts.”

People with bad habits of smoking often feel much persecuted. While smoking is not illegal (at least not yet), it is shunned by society as a whole. At first, you could smoke anywhere. Expecting fathers smoked in the maternity waiting rooms. Then, you could smoke in buildings, but only in a designated smoking room.

Then there came the designated smoking area outside the building. Now restaurants, bars, and whole cities are going smoke-free. It seems that a lot of people have given up their bad habits. However, they do not seem to remember how badly they were addicted before. The truth is that in a way, they are still addicted and always will be. That is how addiction works.

In an effort to save others from the ill effects of their second hand smoke, many people have switched their bad habits to smokeless tobacco. Just because the tobacco is not smoked, though, it does not mean the nicotine is not addictive. It is said to be just as hard a bad habit to break as cigarettes. People quitting it use patches and nicotine gum or Zyban, too.

Sleeping pills are bad habits to get into as well. They can be so addictive that you need a higher and higher dosage to fall asleep. Eventually, they will not help at all. Some people overdose in an attempt to reach a dose that will put them to sleep. It usually takes intervention by a doctor and/or a sleep clinic to straighten you out.

Alcohol can be a bad habit if you drink to excess. For some people with certain physical conditions, it can be risky anyway. It can be dangerous if mixed with particular medications. However, if a person is addicted to alcohol, they will not be concerned with that. Neither will they be concerned about their jobs or their relationships. It will all be about the next drink.

Drugs pose a variety of bad habits. There are so many illegal drugs that they are too numerous to count. They have different affects and cause different levels of addiction. Some have fast and devastating results. Others do little damage in the short run. Yet, they are all bad habits.

There are club drugs, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and hallucinogens. All these drugs can be nasty. There are also legal drugs that people get into bad habits with by starting with an injury or other medical condition. These can be pain pills like percocet, or muscle relaxants. They are also very addictive bad habits.

If you have an addictive bad habit, you probably need some form of help to get over it. In fact, once you have a serious addiction, experiencing the sights, smells, or sounds of your addiction will start your brain in that addictive mode again. It is no wonder that people struggle for years with addictive bad habits.