The use of atypical antipsychotic drugs in Bipolar II Disorder

The bipolar disorders are common, severe long-term conditions, with the World Health Organization reporting in 2001 that bipolar disorder was the fifth cause of ‘life years lived with a disability’ among young adults (WHO, 2001). Atypical antipsychotics are established as the main treatment for schizophrenia, but recently a growing number of trials have indicated that they may provide a therapeutic option for bipolar disorder, as both alternative and adjunctive treatments to traditional mood stabilisers (Vieta and Goikolea, 2005; Berk and Dodd, 2005). While they have been most commonly assessed as treatments for mania, there is increasing evidence of their efficacy and safety in the treatment of bipolar depression and as maintenance treatments of bipolar disorder.