Guidelines on Mood Stabilizers

Mood-stabilizing medication is widely used in treating bipolar disorder. However, not for every phase of bipolar disorder, there is sufficient and recent evidence supporting the use of mood-stabilizing medication. Especially in bipolar depression and mixed episodes, published studies are still sparse. The same is true for potential treatment differences between bipolar I and bipolar II subtypes. We reviewed the most recent available guidelines on the treatment of bipolar disorder as well as the published clinical studies and report the evidence that is at hand for several mood stabilizers in the treatment of different phases and subtypes of bipolar disorder. Additionally, more women suffering from bipolar disorders wish to become pregnant and breastfeed their children. As in this area, there are no randomized controlled trials for ethical reasons; we shortly summarized the evidence that is at hand with a focus on risk for malformation and lactation from register and cohort studies, case series, and a few controlled studies.