Bipolar disorder is a real medical illness. It's not something you can cure with willpower. Taking bipolar disorder medication is just like taking medication for high blood pressure or heart disease.

Bipolar Disorder Therapy

Along with medication, ongoing psychotherapy, or "talk" therapy, is an important part of treatment for bipolar disorder. During therapy, you can discuss feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that cause you problems. Talk therapy can help you understand and ultimately master any problems that hurt your ability to function well in life. It also helps you stay on your medication -- and helps you deal with effects of bipolar disorder on your social and work life. It can help you maintain a positive self-image.

Types of psychotherapy used to treat bipolar disorder include:

Behavioral therapy. This focuses on behaviors that decrease stress.
Cognitive therapy. This type of approach involves learning to identify and modify the patterns of thinking that accompany mood shifts.
Interpersonal therapy. This involves relationships and aims to reduce strains that the illness may place upon them.
Social rhythm therapy. This helps you develop and maintain daily routines.

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Related to bipolar

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Medication can be like a pair of glasses. Bipolar disorder distorts your view of things; medication may allow you to see clearly again.

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Which bipolar medication is best?

Doctors use a number of different classes and brands of drugs to treat bipolar disorder. Treatment for bipolar mania may include lithium, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines.

Many people who have bipolar disorder keep taking these medications for years or decades after their last manic episode to stay healthy. This is called maintenance therapy for bipolar disorder.

During a period of bipolar depression, you might need other medications. Lithium and other mood stabilizers, antipsychotic drugs, and sometimes antidepressants are used to treat bipolar depression.

What is a mood-stabilizing medication?

A mood-stabilizing medication works on improving mood, social interactions, and behavior. Mood stabilizers are effective in the treatment and prevention of bipolar mood states that swing back and forth between the lows of depression and the highs of mania.

Which medications are used to stabilize moods?

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2002 guidelines for treating bipolar disorder, the first-line therapy for bipolar patients with severe mania or mixed episodes is an antipsychotic medication combined with either lithium or the anticonvulsant Depakote (valproate).

Lithium is one of the oldest and cheapest mood-stabilizing mediations for bipolar disorder. Lithium is administered as a salt available under the generic names of lithium carbonate and lithium citrate. Available in capsule, tablet, or liquid form, lithium may have the trade name of Eskalith, Lithobid, Lithane, Lithonate, Lithotabs, Cibalith-S, and others.

Findings show that lithium is effective in reducing symptoms and frequency of episodes with a response rate of 70% to 80% for the initial manic phase of bipolar disorder. In addition, studies show that lithium effectively reduces the risk of suicide at least sixfold.

If you take lithium, you need to have regular blood levels of the drug monitored by your physician, as the medication can be toxic to some people.

Are anticonvulsants used to stabilize the moods of bipolar disorder?

Anticonvulsants offer more treatment options for those with bipolar disorder. Anticonvulsants may be combined with lithium or with other anticonvulsants for optimal effect.

Some commonly used anticonvulsants include Lamictal (lamotrigine), Depakote (valproic acid), Tegretol (carbamazepine), and Trileptal (oxcarbazepine). The anticonvulsants Neurotonin (gabapentin) and Topamax (topiramate) are being studied in clinical trials to see how they work with bipolar disorder.

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