Everything You Wanted to Know About Crazy Meds Talk...

...but were afraid to ask. Read the topics here first and you probably won't feel like a complete idiot.

Site News: Unfair and Unbalanced

What's new on the site. C.f. What's New at Crazy Meds.

Problems with, Questions about Using this Site: How Do I Do That?

How to use this site's software and to report any bugs and technical weirdness you might find.

Site Suggestions: This Site Sucks Donkey Dong!

Your place to make suggestions.

Introduce Yourself Here - Name, Rank, Serial Number

Who are you? Why the hell are you here? Does your mom dress you like that?

Test Posts - Check, check, 1,2,3. Is this thing on?

Test to see if anything is working for you. We have a whole bunch of new bells & whistles, so this is the place to try them out!

Treatment Options for Bipolar Disorder: The Spirit Levels of Your Mind

Which medication or combinations of medications to deal with your particular flavor of bipolar disorder

Questions About Bipolar Disorder: When Does the Roller Coaster Ride End?

Questions about bipolar disorder itself.

Medications for Depression - I want to feel better, just so long as I'm not fat, have all my hair and can still have sex

Which medication or combination of meds might work for your personal abyss.

Questions About Depression: When Will It End?

Questions about the nature of depression.

Treatment Options for Anxiety: I'm Afraid to Take that Pill!

Medication or non-medication treatments for the panic & anxiety axes. Including PTSD, OCD, GAD, SAD and agoraphobia.

Questions about Panic / Anxiety: Don't be Afraid to Ask

Treatment Options - the Fat, the Stupid, and the Itchy

Medication-based treatment options for epilepsy, migraines, sleep disorders, etc.

Questions About Epilepsy, Migraines, Sleep Disorders, and Misc. Neurological Weirdness

Questions about the nature of epilepsy, migraines, sleep disorders, etc.

Women's Co-existing Conditions - Female Trouble

Meds messing with menstruation, pregnancy and all those pills, etc.

Adult ADD/ADHD

ADD/ADHD doesn't go away when people grow up.

Schizophrenia & Other Psychoses: Messages from the Zernox Galaxies

Treatment options for psychotic spectrum conditions.

Other Conditions

Any other condition which is appropriate to this site but doesn't have its own board.

Medication Costs, Insurance, Disability & Assorted Issues - It Costs How Much?

Drug costs, insurance hassles, SSI & SSDI, and so forth.

Brand vs. Generic

Questions, experiences, news, and the like in the ongoing smack-down of brand-name meds vs. generic drugs. See the page on the differences between generic and branded meds for more information.

Other Common Stuff

Things common to all neurological/psychiatric medication.

Crazy News: Meds, Mental Health

News stories, articles, and blog entries about these crazy meds, the mentally interesting, mental health, etc.

Basic Information About All Antidepressants

Wellbutrin (bupropion)

Effexor (venlafaxine) and Pristiq (desvenlafaxine)

Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate) and Celexa (citalopram hydrobromide)

Zoloft (sertraline)

Cymbalta (duloxetine)

Remeron (mirtazapine)

Prozac (fluoxetine)

Tricyclic & Tetracyclic Antidepressants (TCAs)

Emsam and other MAOIs

trazodone & nefazodone

Strattera (atomoxetine) and Edronax (reboxetine)

Paxil (paroxetine)

Luvox (fluvoxamine maleate)

Symbyax (olazapine and fluoxetine)

Other Antidepressants

Basic Information About All Anticonvulsants/Antiepileptic Drugs

Lamictal (lamotrigine)

1. The Rash,
2. How to Take Lamictal,
3. Lamictal and Mania,
4. No, it's NOT The Rash.,
5. Other Side Effects

Topamax (topiramate)

Benzodiazepines

Trileptal (oxcarbazepine) and Tegretol (carbamazepine)

Neurontin (gabapentin) and Lyrica (pregablin)

The valproates: Depakote (divalproex sodium), valproic acid and sodium valproate.

Keppra (levetiracetam)

Zonegran (zonisamide)

Other Antiepileptic Drugs/Anticonvulsants

Basic Information About All Antipsychotics

EPS, TD, Akathisia: Can't sit still!

AP-induced movement disorders and their treatments

Seroquel (quetiapine)

lithium

Abilify (aripiprazole)

Risperdal (risperidone) & Invega (paliperidone)

Zyprexa (olanzapine)

Geodon (ziprasidone)

Saphris (asenapine)

Standard and Other Antipsychotics

Stimulants

Hypnotics and Other Sleep Medications

BuSpar

Alpha, Beta, Calcium? - Betablockers etc.

Drugs to treat blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmia problems. Beta blockers like propranolol, calcium channel blockers like verapamil, and rarely-used (as crazy meds) alpha blockers like Flomax (tamsulosin).

Thyroid meds: T minus 4...3...

Dopamine Agonists

Parkinson's & RLS meds like Mirapex (pramipexole) and Requip (ropinirole).

Other Medications

For any med appropriate to this site that doesn't fit anywhere else.

Talk Therapy: Shut Up Already

Talk therapy as a treatment option.

ECT, VNS, TMS: The Brain Electric

Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS), deep brain and other electrical stimulation, brain surgery and other radical treatments.

Drug-Drug Interactions: Cocktails & Combos

Miscellaneous Major Medical Melange

Stuff about meds, conditions, doctors, etc. that don't really fit anywhere else.

Small Talk

Off-topic discussions that have nothing to do with meds or any medical condition.

News of the Weird, er, World

Any other news of interest.

Media Matters: Books, TV, Music, Movies, Games and Other Distractions

Know Your Neurotransmitters

For discussion of serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, GABA, MAO and anything I may have omitted. What they do and why you may need to adjust them one way or another. Plus all of the various receptors.

Neuroanatomy: Grey Matter's Anatomy

For discussion about how the brain is constructed. What all the various parts do, and what's up with those voltage channels. As we're all about diversity at Crazy Meds, discussion about white matter is not only acceptable but encouraged.

Genetic Factors: Blame Your Parents!

For discussions of the genetic factors involved in, and the latest genetic research about the various conditions we deal with.

How Meds Work: Antagonist? I sorta remember that from lit class...

Got questions about how all of the meds we discuss on this site work in your brain? Look it up on the drug pages! OK, not all of the pages have that section, plus that part is far from the easiest to understand.

Recent stuff we've dug up regarding methods of action (pharmacodynamics) when putting people under knife and giving rats brain scans, or is it the other way around?

N.b. this isn't the place to ask about which drug is best for your specific condition. This board is all about what the drugs do in general.