What Kinds of Medication Are Used for Bipolar Disorder?
• Mood stabilizers. These medications are prescribed to help stabilize manic symptoms, prevent future episodes and reduce suicide risk. The most well-known of these is lithium, which is effective in 60 to 80 percent of manic and hypomanic episodes. Anticonvulsant (or anti-seizure) medications also have mood stabilizing effects. These include valproate (Depakote), carbamazepine (Tegretol), lamotrigine (Lamictal), gabapentin (Neurotin) and topiramate (Topamax). Every medication has its own set of potentially serious side effects. For instance, Lamictal can cause Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a potentially fatal skin disease, though this is rare and is entirely avoidable by careful, slow dose titration. • Atypical antipsychotics. The newest medications, atypical antipsychotics were originally developed to treat psychosis (a symptom of schizophrenia). Like the mood stabilizers above, atypical antipsychotics help to control mood swings. These seven medications are commonly prescribed for bipola
