Document Detail


The diverse roles of anticonvulsants in bipolar disorders.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  12938867     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Anticonvulsant drugs (ACs) have diverse antiseizure, psychotropic, and biochemical effects. Carbamazepine and valproate have mood-stabilizing actions, benzodiazepines and gabapentin have anxiolytic actions, lamotrigine is useful in rapid cycling and acute treatment and prophylaxis of bipolar depression, and topiramate and zonisamide can yield weight loss. Limited controlled data suggest the carbamazepine keto derivative oxcarbazepine has antimanic effects. A categorical approach to the diverse roles of ACs in bipolar disorders is proposed, using broad categories of ACs, on the basis of their predominant psychotropic profiles. Thus, some ACs have "sedating" profiles that may include sedation, cognitive difficulties, fatigue, weight gain, and possibly antimanic and/or anxiolytic effects. In contrast, some newer ACs have "activating" profiles that may include improved energy, weight loss, and possibly antidepressant and even anxiogenic effects. Still other newer ACs have novel "mixed" profiles, combining sedation and weight loss. A categorical-mechanistic extension of this approach is also presented, with hypotheses that "sedating" profiles might be related to prominent potentiation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inhibitory neurotransmission, "activating" profiles could be related to prominent attenuation of glutamate excitatory neurotransmission, and for "mixed" profiles, sedation and weight loss might be related to concurrent GABAergic and antiglutamatergic actions, respectively. The categorical approach may have utility as an aid to clinicians in reinforcing the heterogeneity ACs, and recalling psychotropic profiles of individual ACs, but is limited as it fails to address the etiology of the heterogeneity of AC psychotropic effects. The categorical-mechanistic extension strives to address this issue, but requires systematic clinical investigation of more precise relationships between psychotropic profiles and discrete mechanisms of action to assess its merits.
Authors:
Terence A Ketter; Po W Wang; Olga V Becker; Cecylia Nowakowska; Yen-Shou Yang
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Review    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Annals of clinical psychiatry : official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists     Volume:  15     ISSN:  1040-1237     ISO Abbreviation:  Ann Clin Psychiatry     Publication Date:  2003 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2003-08-26     Completed Date:  2003-12-12     Revised Date:  2005-11-17    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8911021     Medline TA:  Ann Clin Psychiatry     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  95-108     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5723, USA.
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Affect / drug effects
Anticonvulsants / therapeutic use*
Bipolar Disorder / drug therapy*,  metabolism,  psychology
Brain / drug effects,  metabolism
Humans
Neurotransmitter Agents / metabolism
Treatment Outcome
Chemical
Reg. No./Substance:
0/Anticonvulsants; 0/Neurotransmitter Agents

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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