Mood_stabilizers - Articles - Page 2

Highlight From This Issue

March 9, 2020

Quick summary of the issue.

Antipsychotic Maintenance: How Long is Enough?

January 13, 2020

Chris Aiken, MD. Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report. Practicing psychiatrist, Winston-Salem, NC. Dr. Aiken has disclosed that he has no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity.

Atypical antipsychotics can work quickly in mood disorders, but their long-term risks give us pause. When is it safe to discontinue them? The answer, it turns out, depends on whether we look to industry-supported or industry-independent trials.

Mood Stabilizers and Stroke Risk in Bipolar Disorder

July 3, 2019

Thomas Jordan, MD.

Thomas Jordan, MD. Dr. Jordan has disclosed that he has no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity

Why does stroke matter in bipolar disorder? Because it’s the leading cause of death for these patients. Some mood stabilizers raise the stroke risk, while others do not.

EXPERT Q&A

How to Evaluate and Treat Mood Disorders in Pregnancy

July 1, 2016

Vivien Burt, PhD, MD

Vivien Burt, PhD, MD

Founder and co-director at UCLA Women’s Life Center, a perinatal outpatient program in Los Angeles, CA.

Dr. Burt discloses that she has been a paid consultant to Otsuka, Sunovion, Lundbeck, and Takeda. Dr. Puzantian has reviewed this article and has found no evidence of bias in this educational activity.

Dr. Vivien Burt discusses mood disorders and pregnancy. It’s now pretty widely recognized that pregnancy does not protect against mental illness, and the postpartum period is certainly a time of very high vulnerability for women, especially if they’ve had a history of psychiatric illness.

Mood Stabilizer Plus Antidepressant May Protect Against Mania

September 1, 2014

Glen Spielmans, PhD

Glen Spielmans, PhD, has disclosed that he has no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies ertaining to this educational activity.

Most of you would hesitate to put a patient with bipolar I on antidepressants without adding a mood stabilizer, in order to prevent a switch to mania. If this is your clinical practice, you are following the recommendations of the APA consensus guidelines for the treatment of bipolar depression. But the hard data to support the danger of switching is surprisingly weak.

Nuedexta for Pseudobulbar Affect

January 1, 2012

Steve Balt, MD and Daniel Carlat, MD

Steve Balt, MD Research fellow, Addiction Pharmacology Research Laboratory, California Pacific Medical Center Dr. Balt discloses that his spouse is employed as a sales representative for Bristol Myers Squibb. Daniel Carlat, MD

Editor-in-Chief, Publisher, The Carlat Report.

Dr. Carlat has disclosed that he has no relevant relationships or financial interests in any commercial company pertaining to this educational activity.

Nuedexta is a combination of dextromethorphan (DM) and quinidine sulfate. You might reasonably ask why these two agents would have ever been considered as a treatment for PBA.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Mood Disorders

January 1, 2012

Marlene Freeman, MD

Marlene Freeman, MD Associate professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Director of clinical services, Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Clinical Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Freeman has received research support from Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Forest Pharmaceuticals for the study of duloxetine, Lovaza (omega-3 fatty acid), and escitalopram. She has also served as a consultant to Bristol Myers Squibb on measurement based care. Dr. Carlat has reviewed this article and found no evidence of bias in this educational activity.

Defining CAM is challenging. One of the things that makes it so hard to have a concrete discussion on CAM is that it means different things to different people.

Sleeping Pills: Which Ones for Which Patients?

November 1, 2011

Kelleen Flaherty, MS

Insomnia is one of the most common comorbidities you’ll see in your depressed and anxious patients. But it is often misunderstood. While the common view is that insomnia is caused by a primary psychiatric or medical condition, it is more accurate to simply say that patients have insomnia and depression at the same time. Insomnia is almost never an isolated problem.

The Carlat Guide to Medications Used for Insomnia

November 1, 2011

This handy table lists the medications most often used to treat insomnia.

Robust support for mood stabilizers in borderline personality disorder

December 1, 2009

Section editor, Glen Spielmans, PhD

While we typically pick and choose among various drug classes to treat patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), we have a hard time basing our choices on the evidence.