Early intervention for bipolar disorder – Do current treatment guidelines provide recommendations for the early stages of the disorder?

Abstract

Background: Interventions early in the course of bipolar disorder (BD) may have the potential to limit its functional and symptomatic impact. However, the implementation of specific early interventions for BD has been limited which may at least partly be due to the lack of guidelines focused on the early illness stages. We therefore aimed to review the current recommendations for early stage BD from clinical practice guidelines. Methods: We searched PubMED and PsychINFO for clinical guidelines for BD published in the ten years prior to 1 November 2018. Recommendations from identified guidelines that addressed early stage BD or first episode mania were consolidated and compared. We also revie..