What are different drugs for bipolar disorder?
Bipolar disorder drugs - also known as manic depression - include mood stabilizers, antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs and benzodiazepines. Some with bipolar disorders also take anticonvulsants. Bipolar disorder is often chronic diseases, which means that most people suffering from a condition must constantly use drugs during their lives. Bipolar disorder drugs are strong agents that must be carefully mastered: dose skipping can increase the risk of manic episodes, but too much can easily lead to dangerous overdose.
Lithium, mood stabilizer, is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for bipolar disorder. It is not fully understood how lithium is able to reduce manic episodes. One idea is that it helps to control bipolar disorder by regulating the sodium of the body that can affect mood and behavior. The suppression of manic episodes has shown that lithium reduces the chances of suicide. For some with a bipolar disorder, lithium itself is enough to maintain a favorku at bay.
Antidepressants are commonly prescribed drugs for bipolar disorder. They alleviate symptoms of disorder by increasing mood and treatment of depression. Antidepressant drugs, although effective in many cases, can cause some people with bipolar disorders to be depressed further, which can increase the risk of suicide. As a result, antidepressants are perhaps prescribed more carefully than other medicines. The most common types of antidepressant drugs prescribed for bipolar disorders include monoamine oxidase inhibitors (Maoi), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and tricyclic antidepressants.
Benzodiazepines are fast -acting medicines that slow brain activity and help calm the effects of bipolar disorder. They usually do not want to take for a long time because they are considered highly addictive. Doctors use them mainly to wait for other mood stabilizers to fully manifest. Most mood stabilizers, such as lithium, can take up to several weeks to work. Benzodiazepines help fill this gap.
As well as benzodiazepines, antipsychotic drugs for bipolar disorder are often used to control symptoms until drugs stabilize. Like benzodiazepines, antipsychotic drugs in efficiency faster than most mood stabilizers. More specifically, they are used to healing patients suffering from hallucinations and other forms of deceptive thinking.
Anticonvulsants grew in popularity as effective drugs also for bipolar disorder. It works almost the same as conventional mood stabilizers. Initially, the anticonvulsants - as their name would indicate - were used primarily to treat patients' seizures. Over time, doctors noted that the drugs not only reduced the symptoms of seizures, but it seemed to increase mood. Today they are often prescribed instead of traditional mood stabilizers or next to it.