A Handy Guide To Latest Medications For Bipolar Affective Disorder

Bipolar affective disorder, alternatively identified as manic depression disorder, is a psychological disorder that causes the patient to experience mood swings or mood cycling, creating depressive episodes, mania episodes, and/or mixed episodes. Bipolar affective disorder can be cured in a lot of different ways. Studies suggest that a mixture of medication and therapy or medication and counselling yields very good results.

Medical research conducted in the last decade or so,has been able to find out the true biological cause of bipolar affective disorder. It has resulted in several new bipolar affective disorder medications. Let us look at some of the popular bipolar affective disorder treatments.

Abilify, or Aripiprazole, is an atypical anti-psychotic. It is an approved drug for cure of manic and mixed bipolar disorder episodes since 2004 and an accepted method for bipolar disorder since 2005. While most anti-psychotic medications work by shutting down dopamine receptors in the brain, Abilify works by making the dopamine receptors behave more normally. This stabilization makes this latest medication the ideal treatment for bipolar affective disorder.

Celexa,an antidepressant, has been available for many years now. However, it has become popular since last few years as a remedy for bipolar affective disorder. This is due to the fact that Celexa has proven to be more selective than other anti-depressants. This essentially means that with Celexa, fewer bipolar patients need a mood stabilizer to prevent the antidepressant from sending them zooming into a manic episode. It has been a huge success as a maintenance medication for bipolar affective disorder.

Geodon is an anti-psychotic that works as a mood stabilizer in bipolar affective disorder patients. The most exciting thing about this latest mood stabilizer medication is that it is not associated with weight gain. It works in much the same way as Zyprexa, which has been proven to be a very successful medication for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. However, unlike Zyprexa, side effects are fewer, milder, and do not include weight gain!

Wellbutrin, also sold as Zyban, was originally developed as a medication to help people stop smoking, in which it has been quite successful. In recent years, however, it has been discovered, quite by accident, that it is even more successful as an antidepressant when used as a medication for bipolar affective disorder. Chemically, it is unrelated to any other antidepressant, and it is unknown why it works so well with bipolar patients. One advantage to Wellbutrin is that it is a weight stable medication, meaning that patients will typically not see weight gain or weight loss.

As technology and research progresses, more effective drugs for bipolar affective disorder are bound to be developed. Successful treatment of bipolar affective disorder is the goal of many researchers, psychologists, and psychiatrists. It is advisable to consult your doctor, and be aware of the latest research findings for bipolar affective disorder. You can then appreciate the benefits of an effective treatment for your bipolar affective disorder.