Bipolar: How can we treat this problem (when antidepressants don’t work)?

26 April 2007

Bipolar disorder is now the sixth leading disability in the world. It is a chronic and recurring psychiatric disorder that causes dramatic and sudden mood swings – although depression is the bigger problem because that is when the sufferer is more likely to commit suicide.

Astonishingly for such a prevalent condition, not one of the 25 standard antidepressants has been approved for use for the disorder, even though doctors regularly prescribe them to patients.

And, according to a new Harvard study, they’re wasting their time. A group of 366 bipolar sufferers were given either a mood stabilizer and antidepressant, or a mood stabilizer and a placebo – but the drug wasn’t any more effective than the placebo. Levels and frequency of mania were similar in both groups.

(Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2007; 356: 1711-22).

E-news broadcast 26 April 2007 No.354 [Subscribe]

Bipolar: How can we treat this problem (when antidepressants don’t work)?

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