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 .
Risperidone and paroxetine given singly and in combination for bipolar depression.
BACKGROUND Bipolar depression is a major clinical problem that remains under- research ed . The current study was intended to evaluate the effects of the novel antipsychotic risperidone , the selective serotonin reup-take inhibitor ( SSRI ) paroxetine , and the combination in patients with bipolar disorder . METHOD Thirty patients with DSM-IV bipolar ( I or II ) disorder , depressed phase , who were receiving a stable dose of a mood stabilizer were r and omly assigned to 12 weeks of double-blind treatment with risperidone ( plus placebo ) , paroxetine ( plus placebo ) , or the combination of risperidone and paroxetine . Data were gathered from August 1999 to September 2001 . RESULTS All 3 groups experienced significant reductions in depression ratings from baseline to endpoint ; there were no significant differences in outcome between groups . There were statistically significant differences in paroxetine dose contrasting paroxetine plus placebo against the combined condition . The switch rate into mania or hypomania was very low , with only 1 patient in the paroxetine plus placebo condition experiencing mild hypomania . CONCLUSION These results suggest that risperidone , paroxetine , and the combination of risperidone and paroxetine are equally but modestly effective when added to a mood stabilizer in bipolar depression . The paroxetine dose differed between groups , possibly because of drug-drug interactions . Using another SSRI in the combined condition could have produced a more robust effect and should be tested
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 .