Lamotrigine achieves mood stabilization in bipolar patients...

Lamotrigine may be effective in delaying mood episodes, particularly depressive episodes, in patients with bipolar disorder, delegates were told at the Fourth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

'This is one of the longest maintenance studies ever conducted in bipolar patients, and the results are telling. Lamotrigine delayed subsequent mood episodes, particularly depressive episodes, in patients who were recently manic,' said Joseph Calabrese, director of the Mood Disorders Center at the University Hospitals of Cleveland. 'While lamotrigine is not FDA-approved for bipolar disorder, these data - combined with previously published placebo-controlled data - suggest the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine in the treatment of bipolar disorder.'

The international multicenter study involved 175 outpatients diagnosed with bipolar I disorder. The participants had all achieved stabilization with lamotrigine (100-200 mg/day) monotherapy before being randomized to receive lamotrigine (100-400 mg/day), lithium, or placebo. Follow-up continued for 18 months.

Patients receiving lamotrigine demonstrated evidence of long-term mood stabilization, as indicated by Time to Intervention for a Mood Episode (TIME), compared with placebo, together with other indices of stability and illness relapse. Lamotrigine also showed superiority to placebo in time to intervention for a depressive episode. The drug was generally well tolerated by patients, although serious rashes requiring, in some cases, discontinuation of treatment and even hospitalization were experienced by one per cent of pediatric patients and 0.3% of adults.

Fourth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder