title: Anticonvulsants for treatment of manic depression.
abstract: Although lithium remains the treatment of choice for manic depression, it is now well recognized that 20%-40% of patients either do not tolerate the drug or their disease does not respond to it. This subgroup of patients accounts for a substantial majority of the morbidity that accompanies this illness. For this reason, alternatives to lithium therapy will have a significant clinical impact. In a great majority of cases, the rapid-cycling variant of this disorder accounts for the resistance to lithium treatment. Recently, a growing body of literature has suggested that several medications routinely used in the management of seizure disorders, particularly carbamazepine and valproate, have therapeutic mood-altering properties. These drugs have been evaluated in numerous drug trials using open, double-blinded, longitudinal, and (in the case of carbamazepine) randomized designs. The authors comment on the phenomenology of manic depression and review the literature on use of anticonvulsants in the management of lithium-resistant manic depression.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Delucchi
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Calabrese
mesh_terms: D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants