Drugs used in mania
Major depression and mania are two extremes of affective disorders which refer to a pathological change in a mood state.
- Major depression is characterized by symptoms like sad mood, loss of interest and pleasure, low energy, worthlessness, guilt, psychomotor retardation or agitation, change in appetite or sleep, melancholia, suicidal thoughts etc.
- Mania refers to elation or irritable mood, racing thoughts, accelerated speech, increased activity, reduced sleep, reckless or violent behaviour and may be progressive loss of contact with reality.
- In bipolar disorders, cyclical swings mood from mania to depression are seen. The mood change may have a psychotic basis with delusional thinking or occur in isolation and induce anxiety.
Drugs used in these conditions are grouped into:
- Antidepressants.
- Antimanics (Mood stabilizer)
Antidepressants
These are drugs which can elevate mood in depressive illness. Practically all anti-depressants affect monoaminergic transmission in the brain in one way or other.
Antimanic (Mood Stabilizing) Drugs
Lithium Carbonate
At present Lithium is a drug of its own kind to exert a prophylactic effect in bipolar manic depressive illness (MDI) and is being extensively used at centres where its serum level can be measured.
Over past 2 decades antiepileptics viz carbamezapine and valproate have emerged as alternatives to Lithium and their mood stabilizing property are well established now.