In maintenance trials atypical antipsychotics had significantly fewer relapses to depression or mania than placebo or active comparator .
Conclusion Atypical antipsychotics are effective in treating both phases of bipolar disorder compared with placebo , and as effective as established drug therapies .
Atypical antipsychotics produce fewer extrapyramidal symptoms , but weight gain is more common ( with olanzapine ) .
There is insufficient data confidently to distinguish between different atypical antipsychotics
Background Atypical antipsychotics are increasingly used for treatment of mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder , and considered to have fewer extrapyramidal effects than older antipsychotics .
Olanzapine compared to lithium in mania: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.
Neuroleptics are of established efficacy in mania . Controlled data on the use of olanzapine in mania is however , absent . In this study , 30 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for mania were r and omly allocated to receive either olanzapine or lithium in a 4 week double-blind r and omized controlled design . There were no significant outcome differences between the two groups on any of the primary outcome measures , the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale  ( lithium 28.2 ; olanzapine 28.0 ; P = 0.44 ) ; Clinical Global Impression ( CGI ) improvement scale  ( lithium 2.75 , olanzapine 2.36 ; P = 0.163 ) or the Mania Scale  ( lithium 13.2 , olanzapine 10.2 ; P = 0.315 ) . Olanzapine was however , significantly superior to lithium on the CGI-severity scale at week 4 ( lithium 2.83 , olanzapine 2.29 ; P = 0.025 ) . Olanzapine did not differ from lithium in terms of treatment emergent extrapyramidal side-effects as measured by the Simpson-Angus Scale .  Olanzapine appears to be at least as effective as lithium in the treatment of mania
In maintenance trials atypical antipsychotics had significantly fewer relapses to depression or mania than placebo or active comparator .
Conclusion Atypical antipsychotics are effective in treating both phases of bipolar disorder compared with placebo , and as effective as established drug therapies .
Atypical antipsychotics produce fewer extrapyramidal symptoms , but weight gain is more common ( with olanzapine ) .
There is insufficient data confidently to distinguish between different atypical antipsychotics
Background Atypical antipsychotics are increasingly used for treatment of mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder , and considered to have fewer extrapyramidal effects than older antipsychotics .