Expert: Libby Bonner - 7/21/2008

Question
dear libby,
I am now 30 years old and i was diagnised at 23. I have used zeptol and quitpin for years now as drugs for bipolar disorder, every time i miss the dose i feel neusea and end up vomitting please let me know their side effects because my doctor couldnt answer. the other question is does bipolar affect my sexual drive because sometimes i dont perform.

regards,
Gerald
Kenya

Answer
Do you vomit on the day you resume your zeptol, or on the day that you miss it....and is there any chance you miss for more than one day at a time?

I ask because nausea and vomiting are listed as common side-effects when beginning the med, but not thereafter.   Though - if you are missing only a single day - I would think your blood level of the med would remain high enough so that you would not become virtually a "new" patient each time you resume.   If you miss several days, perhaps your blood level could drop sufficiently to cause problems on resumption....

I cannot find any info on quitpin - not a drug used in the US, apparently.  If you can find other names for it, it's possible that I could find info.

"Can't perform" refers to erection, yes?, and not libido?  Can't help much here, except to ask when the problem began....esp in relation to your beginning to take these two meds.  Meds, rather than bipolar, are likelier to cause problems for most people.  You say you have been on both for years; how recently did the problem begin?  Also has the frequency of the problem increased from when it began?

I tentatively discount the meds AND the bipolar as causes.  Change in partners???  If not that, a good, thorough check-up w/ a general doc is in order.  It might reveal a disorder or disease that has not yet shown up in any way yet except for the sexual problem.  A check-up now that found very early disease - diabetes, for instance - could start you on a good preventive path.  If it were diabetes, for instance, you probably could make lifestyle changes - nutrition, exercize - that might forestall needing to take any meds for quite some time and might also correct the problem about which you have written.