Cyclothymia is only a mild form of bipolar disorder. It consists of recurrent mood swings between hypomania and dysthimic mood. Using the diagnostive criteria, when a person has a history of mania or major depressive episodes, cyclothymia can be ruled out. However, in bipolar II disorder the presence of at least one hypomanic episode and one at least one major depressive episode is needed for confirming the diagnosis. These are the most important differences between bipolar II disorder and cyclothymia which both belong to bipolar disorder.
It is possible that the symptoms you reported (cycling moods between extreme euphoria and extreme depression, extreme productivity, stress and unexplainable panic, racing thoughts, deep depression after the periods of joy) might be related to bipolar disorder. However, since the difference between Bipolar II disorder and cyclothymia is very small, you might want to visit a psychiatrist to have this determined for sure.
Lamotrigine is indicated for the maintenance treatment of Bipolar Disorder to delay the time to occurrence of mood episodes (depression, mania, hypomania, mixed episodes) in patients treated for acute mood episodes with standard therapy. The mechanisms by which lamotrigine exerts its therapeutic action in Bipolar Disorder have not been established.
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