Researchers have pointed out that on a short term a single drug may be used to treat both the phases of bipolar disorder .
Bipolar disorder is a psychotic disorder characterized by successive feelings of elation and depression. Also known as manic-depressive illness that affects 3 to 4 5 of the global adult population. This is a chronic condition and most of the sufferers have multiple occurrences of the condition for most of their lives.Researchers from University Hospitals of Cleveland and others have reported that antipsychotic medications are effective in the short term for treating both the manic as well as the depressive phases of the bipolar disorder. Currently antipsychotic drugs like Seroquel are used in treating the manic phase of the bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. With the new research report the researchers say that it is possible to treat bipolar disorder with only a single drug for all its phases.
In the study done for the drug Seroquel, patients of the bipolar disease taking the drug reported about 50% more improvement in their quality of life than their counterparts who had taken the placebo.
Reference: American Journal of Psychiatry, July 2005
