Lamotrigine as the Mood Stabilizerin the Treatment of Patients with Bipolar Disorder II

Overview

The presence of hypomanic episodes discriminates bipolar disorder II from periodic depressivedisorder. In a sample of 22 patients suffering from the bipolar disorder II we describe the evalua-tion of efficacy and tolerance of lamotrigine, anticonvulsant of the 3rd generation as the moodstabilizer. We measured the average number and length of depressive and hypomanic episodes 6months before the treatment with lamotrigine (100 mg per day), and, during the 6 months oftreatment. Global functioning of the patients was assessed using the GAF scale. During the 6months treatment with lamotrigine we found in the group of our patients statistically significantdecrease of the average number and length of both depressive and hypomanic episodes of BP II,compared to the average number of these episodes 6 months before the therapy. The averageadaptation of the patients improved significantly.

Key words:
cycling, borderline personality disorder.