Why Do Antidepressants Sometimes Cause Mania?

Dr. John Reed explains why antidepressants can sometimes cause manic episodes in patients with bipolar disorder. He is speaking from his experience as a researcher.

[charronfamilyconnect]

I know a close family member who had moderate social anxiety, was prescribed an anti-depressant, dose was upped after a month, then he had a state of mania, was admitted to the hospital, the psychiatrist thought he had schizo-affective disorder, prescribed him a bunch of terrible anti-psychotics which drove him crazy with restlessness. He nearly killed himself. He was tapered off all these meds over 3 month period, and seems to be mostly back to normal except for suffering with insomnia. Why didnt the psychiatrist tell us that his one time psychosis was likely related to his anti-depressant, and rush us into putting him on these terrible anti-psychotics from day 1, and tell us these meds arent that bad except for very minor side effects. We felt lied to, and betrayed. We are lucky that he didnt kill himself.

[amandeepsinghahuja]

Anti-depressants have been found to induce mania even in those with unipolar depression.

[randomoverpopulatedworldid]

paxil and prozac made me manic. I was arrested going 100+mph at 20 yrs old... and cops asked me if i was on meth. my pupils were the size of dimes. i had never even thought of doing drugs like meth but i was in jail for reckless driving (blood alcohol was .07 so I was arrested) but paxil was the culprit. i'd never speed like that ever again in my life without antidepressants. it's like taking a small dose of cocaine - one teacher in collage told me. I AM NOT bipolar. I have adhd. so the simple solution was amphetamines.

[MiniCooPugz]

Uhhh I started taking Lexapro and now I have so much energy I don't even know what to do with and I get really irritable and

[bookbookism]

I experienced sertraline-induced mania and I was given a bipolar diagnosis even though I have never experienced mania before (except for when taking sertraline, which is medication-induced mania)- why did I recieve a bipolar diagnosis knowing that I never experienced 'organic' non-medicine-induced mania? Can someone please explain this to me? At first I thought this was a mistake but then other HCPs agreed with the diagnosis. Is this some sort of norm/convention in mental health diagnoses? Pleas help, thanks! :)

[vincentschmitt]

my son 16 got maniac and psychotic with deroxat. He suddenly killed himself. Prior to deroxat he was not maniac nor depressed.

[markford]

In response to all these online psychiatrists, i would say that affective disorders are far more complex and nuanced than one might deduce from these videos. That which they term mania from antidepressant administration, is dysphoric with irritability and agitation, at the core. One can become very hostile which is profoundly disturbing.

[berner]

When I've had coffee induced mania, it's been the best state of mind I've ever been in. I know it's probably not true mania (unless it's a different form of it), but given that I've been at my most motivated, most creative, most adaptive to my social environment, what would the danger be (if any) for a person to be in a manic state or even if it's even possible, to be at a constant level of mania?

[milanic]

can antidepressants cause mania in people with borderline disorder?

[stvrstvff]

He didn't answer the question. Like, at all.

[cowboyjohnsontown]

Doctors like this guy think they're gods. He speaks with such confidence and yet still believes out-dated science.

Not only do docs like him think they can distill the human experience into simple chemistry, but they have the audacity to believe they somehow know what they're doing by "playing chemist" with people's lives.

[KarinaAndrade-eygn]

I'm on 50 milligrams on zoloft the higher the dosage I get mania 25 milligrams doesn't do that to me

[Alina-xunn]

What if you went manic on medication but it turned out you aren't bipolar what would that mean?

[petrr]

i had a mania after Prozak. Today i stopped to take Prozak. i did it 4 mounth. i do not know what will be later/ scary. Sorry for my English. if you are interesting)

[gillenzfluff]

I feel better using cannabis than seroxat.
How come healthy volunteers get suicidal thoughts from ssri's and how is that good for depressed people.

[KarolB]

I was just diagnosed with Bipolar 1 at 30 years old. Can that be?
I don't feel Bipolar I've been depressed and had a completely manic episode due to an antidepressants.
Doctor says that that counts for a diagnosis even if the manic episode was drug induce. Can that be true ?