Update: new uses for lithium and anticonvulsants.
Anticonvulsants are being used clinically as monotherapy and adjuncts in mental illnesses other than affective disorders. This review focuses on the literature for anticonvulsants and lithium in substance use disorders, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia. Given the abuse potential and other difficulties with prescribing benzodiazepines for alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal, anticonvulsants have been considered as an alternative. Promising therapeutic effects have been demonstrated in many of the anxiety disorders, with the greatest number of trials and positive results in posttraumatic stress disorder. Although anticonvulsant and lithium augmentation for schizophrenia is common in practice and has been studied in double-blind, randomized, controlled trials, the sum of the evidence has been inconclusive.
Rosenberg
Jennifer M
JM
Front Range Clinical Research, Wheat Ridge, CO, USA.
Salzman
Carl
C
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016651:Lithium Carbonate / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000927:Anticonvulsants; D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D016651:Lithium Carbonate