Could she have run out of her meds, or suddenly stopped taking them? What would be the effects of this?
As far as I have been told by my Dr, the effects of running out of Lamictal are a deep depression (depressive swing) cold sweats, trouble sleeping. People have to discontinue Lamictal a lot because it causes a rare skin rash that can kill you. When your Dr. notices the rash, you are taken straight off of the drug no matter what. Lamictal is started at 25-50 milligrams every 2-3 weeks until you reach the "therapeutic" dose which is arguably 200mg or more. Standard is 200 mg. When you ween off the medication by choice you titrate down on the same schedule, but stopping it all together isn't life threatening or psychotic break inducing.
SSRI's are another story. First of all, patients who are bipolar are often diagnosed simply because the standard SSRI Psychs like to perscribe end up making their symptoms worse. It is very rare that a person who is Bipolar be on an SSRI, it does absolutely no good. Taking too much of an SSRI will cause a psychotic break, taking a disassociative with an SSRI can cause the liver to process it differently, resulting in a psychotic break.
I don't see any indication she was on a Benzo, but for what it is worth, they have to be weened off of very slowly. If I miss my nightly pill by an hour I am half-way to a full blown seizure.
Quitting Ambien or similar hypnotic medications has no side effect.
Adderall can cause paranoia. It is physically addictive unlike Ritalin which can become mentally addictive.
I took Effexor for a short time in highschool and it's the craziest I have ever been in my life. I was swiftly taken off of it. I am concerned about Effexor being combined with Lamictal and WELLBUTRIN.
The second craziest experience I have ever had in my life was while I was on Wellbutrin to stop smoking. I couldn't remember anything. I was very despondant. I was taking piano lessons at the time and I couldn't even get my fingers to press the right keys. Wellbutrin is NOT an SSRI even though it is marketed as one, it works on your dopamine receptors and is commonly used in recovering addicts and alcoholics. It also functions secondarily as a stimulant...which....she is already on Adderall, so why add this in the mix?
I hope I didn't break any rules here, but I have had experience with these drugs.