How Long Does It Take For Medications To Work For Bipolar Disorder, And Do They Always Work?

— -- Question: How long does it take for medications to work for bipolar disorder, and do they always work?

Answer: Most medicines that are used to treat bipolar disorder are safe and effective. But of course the real question is how fast do they work. Unfortunately these medicines don't work as fast as we would like. We can tell you that if you're going to respond to a medicine you'll begin to have some improvement though within 14 days. That is to say, early improvement predicts later response and a fuller and complete recovery quite well.

So it takes actually a couple of months to get really well -- you know 100 percent feeling good -- but you'll know within a couple weeks whether or not it's going to do the job.

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