Atypical antipsychotics for bipolar disorder: Overblown or blown over?

Abstract

Objective : Developments in the pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorder are of much interest, as the chronicity and disability of the disorder become better understood, and as treatment goals have shifted to emphasise early control of illness course and maintenance of euthymia in addition to acute episodic remission. Atypical antipsychotics have emerged as treatment options, and this paper aims to review the evidence for their role in bipolar disorder. Methods : A MEDLINE search was conducted for publications up till October 2006. Results : The search yielded a number of randomised, controlled clinical trials of various atypical antipsychotics as monotherapy or adjunctive therapy in bi..