Finding the best medication and combination of various medications for patient with the bipolar disorder is a very important thing, as lots of individuals with the bipolar disorder may need the life-long therapy with the mood stabilizer medication.
The primary goal of mood stabilizer treatment must include resolving any active symptoms of depression or mania, reducing any adverse effects, preventing the future episodes, or enhancing the treatment adherence, as per treatment guidelines
Mood stabilizer is one kind of medication or supplement that is used for treating manic and depressive symptoms of the bipolar disorder. Additionally, mood stabilizer must prevent and extend duration between the episodes, thus maintaining euthymia (stable mood, which is neither manic nor depressed).
What’re Mood Stabilizers?
The mood stabilizers are one kind of the psychiatric medicine and they’re licensed to get used as a part of this treatment for:
- Bipolar disorder
- Recurrent, depression or schizoaffective disorder
- Mania and hypomania
Some individual drugs that we name as mood stabilizers are quite chemical substances from one another. However, healthcare professionals group this together, as they will help to stabilize the mood in case you experience any problems with the extreme highs and extreme lows. They will help in case you have any mood swings between the extreme lows and highs.
Different Types of the Mood Stabilizers
There’re three types of the mood stabilizing medication that includes anticonvulsants (originally developed for treatment of the seizure disorders), lithium, and antipsychotic medications.
Lithium
This medication is generally used for long-term mania treatment. It will decrease how often you are getting the episode or how severe it is. They are found to lower the suicide risk too.
Valproate
Lithium may not work or might not be suitable for treating mania as a part of the bipolar disorder in some individual. If that is the case with you, it is recommended to take valproate as the long-term treatment.
Valproate can be used for treating epilepsy and mania. There’re different types of valproate and valproic acid mainly comes in form of capsules and tablets.
Clinical Effects of the Mood-Stabilizing Drugs
Mood stabilizing medicines are often used for treating various symptoms of the bipolar disorder, though persons with various illnesses like schizoaffective disorder will benefit from it. There are some major uses for the mood stabilizing supplements:
- Stabilizing your mood swings
- Reducing acute symptoms of mania and depression to manageable level
- Preventing any symptom relapses & rehospitalizations