What Are The Most Common Treatments For Bipolar Disorder?

Dr. Roy Perlis answers the question: 'Common Treatments For Bipolar Disorder?'

By
Roy Perlis, M.D., Psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital; Assist. Prof. of Psychiatry, Harvard
February 28, 2008, 12:18 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question: What are the most common treatments for bipolar disorder?

Answer: One of the most common treatments for bipolar disorder is actually a medication that's been around for more than 50 years, which is lithium.

But in the past couple of decades lithium has been joined by a number of other treatments including some of the anticonvulsants -- so some of the seizure medicines like valproate, carbamazepine, and most recently lamotrigine.

And then we've also begun to use a class of medications called atypical antipsychotics.

Antipsychotics were originally developed for use in schizophrenia and other kinds of psychotic disorders, but some of them turn out to work fairly well for treating symptoms in bipolar disorder too.

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