Book Review: Mood Disorders: Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Mood Disorders Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder Terence A Ketter, editor. Washington (DC): American Psychiatric Publishing; 2005. 261 p. US$34.95. Reviewer rating: Excellent This book is the third of the well-established Review of Psychiatry Series, Volume 24. It is written by 20 eminent US researchers in the field. The purpose of the book is to evaluate and summarize treatment approaches for patients with bipolar disorder (BD). The book is aimed primarily at physicians treating patients with BD, but will also be useful for mental health professionals, students, researchers, and administrators. The book is divided into 7 chapters. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter summarizing the developments of treatments for BD since the first report for the efficacy of lithium in acute mania in 1949. Chapter 1 contains tables listing different agents approved for BD in the United States as well as controlled studies for acute mania and depression with various psychopharmacological agents. Chapter 2 deal with the treatment of acute mania in BD. It is 44 pages long and has 101 references. Special subsections are devoted to treatments with lithium, divalproex, carbamazepine, newer antipsychotics, newer anticonvulsants, and benzodiazepines. This chapter examines several studies in detail and also has 2 useful figures that compare the response rates of 15 monotherapy studies with placebo as well as 5 combination therapy studies with mood stabilizers alone. Comparison response rates of mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics are also listed. In Chapter 3, Gary Sachs thoroughly elaborates on the treatment of acute depression in BD. The chapter is 53 pages long and has 99 references. At the beginning of the chapter, Sachs emphasizes the public health significance of bipolar depression. He also lists categories of evidence for widely used psychotropics and their response rates. There is a brief review of studies specifically examining lithium and lamotrigine. Sachs reviews the role of electroconvulsive therapy and some novel therapeutics such as adjunctive stimulants, dopamine receptor agonists, omega-3 fatty acids, phototherapy, magnetic stimulation, and sleep deprivation. He also examines the question of treatment-emergent affective switch and cycle acceleration owing to antidepressants. Sachs reviews practical clinical strategies for the management of bipolar depression in detail and includes a useful table listing different decision points and the initial management recommendations. Chapter 4 reviews the long-term management of BD. It is 35 pages with 82 references. …