For many decades, diagnosis of bipolar disorder was missed, either because a patient did not bring the symptoms to their doctor's attention, or because it was thought to be a psychiatric condition that needed psychotherapy or even psychoanalysis. Only with the first steps taken in the 1970s of administering lithium to patients suffering from depression did the wider field of medications for bipolar disorders receive attention from the pharmaceutical sector. Lithium is the single most effective treatment in psychiatry. Its side effects are easily manageable, and many patients stay on low-dose lithium for decades. Its benefits, in terms of the relief of mania and the prophylaxis of depression, are incalculable.
Today, the main treatments fall into 7 categories.