What medications can treat bipolar disorder?
Prescribing for bipolar disorder is a difficult one. Doctors have to judge exactly how to organise your medication so that you end up with a balanced mood. Achieving a balance is important to prevent patients entering one phase from another, for example, from manic to depressive or visa versa. There is a variety of different medications to treat people with bipolar disorder – the ones you end up taking depend on your personal situation. We can use medication to: Treat severe episodes of mania, depression or hypomania and mixed episodes. This is called acute therapy. Prevent future episodes. This is called maintenance therapy. So if you have got bipolar disorder, you will probably need to take a combination of medications.
- Mood stabilisers
- Antipsychotics
- Other medications
Mood stabilisers
Doctors normally prescribe mood stabilisers both to treat severe episodes and to prevent future ones.
There are many different mood stabilisers. These three are the most common ones taken for bipolar disorder.
Lithium
Lithium can be used in the treatment of manic episodes and in some cases in recurrent depression where other drugs have been unsuccessful, this varies from country to country.
Common side-effects: Blurred vision, dry mouth, mild hand tremor, frequent urination, nausea and vomiting, tiredness, drowsiness, feeling dazed, weight gain.
Valproate
Valproate is better than lithium at treating rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. It can also treat both manic and depressive episodes.
Common side-effects: include dizziness, drowsiness, tremor and nausea.
Carbamazepine
Carbamazepine can also treat both manic and depressive episodes.
Common side-effects: dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and rash.
Care needs to be taken with these mood stabilisers. Too little means the medication will not work properly and too much will cause side-effects. We need to keep the amount in your bloodstream within a narrow range. That's why blood samples have to be taken regularly to measure the level of whichever one you are taking.
