Medications For Bipolar Disorder

If you have Bipolar Disorder, you will need medication.  You will probably need bipolar medication for the rest of your life.

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness. It's not something you can cure with willpower. Taking medication for Bipolar Disorder is just like taking medication for diabetes or heart disease.

Along with medication, psychotherapy, can be an important part of treatment for bipolar disorder. During therapy, you can discuss feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that cause you problems. Psychotherapy can help you understand and control any problems that hurt your ability to function well in life. It can help you  to stay on your medication.  There are different types of therapy which are used Behavioral Therapy focuses on behaviors that decrease stress.  Cognitive therapy. This type of approach involves learning to identify and modify the patterns of thinking that accompany mood shifts.  Interpersonal therapy. This involves relationships and aims to reduce strains that the illness may place upon them.  Social therapy. This helps you develop and maintain daily routines.

Doctors use a number of different types of drugs to treat bipolar disorder.  Treatment for bipolar mania may include lithium, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines.   Many people who have bipolar disorder keep taking these medications for years after their last episode to stay healthy. This is   called maintenance therapy for bipolar disorder. 

A mood-stabilizing medication works on improving mood, social interactions, and behavior. Mood stabilizers are effective in the treatment and prevention of bipolar mood swings.  A mood stabilizing medication works on improving mood, social interactions, and behavior. Mood stabilizers are effective in the treatment and prevention of episodes of lows of depression and the highs of mania.

The drug therapy of choice for bipolar patients with severe mania or mixed episodes is an antipsychotic medication combined with either Lithium or the anticonvulsant Depakote.

Lithium is one of the oldest and cheapest mood-stabilizing mediations for bipolar disorder. Lithium is a  natural salt available under the generic names of lithium carbonate and lithium citrate. Findings show that lithium is effective in reducing symptoms and frequency of episodes of bipolar disorder. In addition, studies show that lithium effectively reduces the risk of suicide.  If you take lithium, you need to have regular blood levels of the drug monitored by your physician, as the medication dosage needs to be established from person to person.

Anticonvulsants offer more treatment options for those with bipolar disorder.  Anticonvulsants may be combined with lithium or with other anticonvulsants targeting different symptoms.Some commonly used anticonvulsants include Lamictal, Depakote, Tegretol, and Trileptal

All of these drugs have been tested bith Bipolar Patients and show that the benefits are dramatic when it comes to recovery from the devastating mood swings of Bipolars.  It takes time for the medication to work and there may have to be a trial and error in attempting to control the mood swings but close contact with your psychotherapist and doctor makes taking medication as simple as possible..

The importance of finding the right medication and the right doseage with the fewest side effects is easier and with the newer medications safer to help control Bipolar Disorder.