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03-05 Treatments and outcomes in bipolar disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

P Joyce*
Affiliation:
Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Christchurch, New Zealand
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Abstract

Type
Abstracts from ‘Brainwaves’— The Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual Meeting 2006, 6–8 December, Sydney, Australia
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Blackwell Munksgaard

The treatment of bipolar disorder remains a major challenge. A wide variety of psychopharmacological treatments are available, which are usually considered under the groupings of antimanic drugs, antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers. In real-life clinical practice, monotherapy is the exception, and the challenge is to obtain rational polypharmacy. Even, with a wide range of available drugs, and a high likelihood of being able to achieve remission from any particular mood episode, the probability of recurrence and/or chronic residual symptoms is high. The greatest therapeutic challenges are in the areas of depressive and mixed symptom states.