Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Overview

Since antipsychotics have been discovered in the fi fties of the last century, these drugs havefound their fi rm place in the treatment of Bipolar Disorder. In european countries antipsychoticshave always been used in the acute treatment of mania as fi rst choice drugs. Second generationantipsychotics have more favourable side effect profi le than fi rst generation antipsychotics andare drugs for treatment of mania and have their place also in the treatment of depressive episode.We present a review and current opinions on role of antipsychotics in the treatment of BipolarDisorder.

Key words:
antipsychotics, bipolar disorder, drugs of fi rst choice.