Clinicians searching for evidence-based quantitative assessments on which to base diagnosis and treatment of patients with bipolar disorder need look no further. Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorders analyzes the benefits and harms for both older and more recently developed treatments, and places these analyses in the context of the authors' many years of clinical experience. The result is a book that is both quantitatively sound and qualitatively rich, and one that will help clinicians understand the latest research and integrate it into their practices with confidence. In addition to comprehensive coverage of the most important recent advances, the book addresses advances in more specific areas, including the treatment of particular populations such as women, children, and older adults. In addition, the book covers many critically important topics and boasts an abundance of helpful features: * Evidence-based quantitative assessments of benefits use "numbers needed to treat" for therapeutic effects and "numbers needed to harm" for side effects, ensuring that the quality of data supporting interventions meets a rigorous standard.* The book's information is based not only on controlled trials and FDA approvals but also on almost two decades of clinical research and clinical treatment experience by clinicians at Stanford University.* Plentiful figures and summary tables are provided to summarize the content and make it easy-to-grasp and clinician-friendly.* In addition to coverage of acute bipolar depression and acute manic and mixed episodes, the book provides chapters on the preventive treatment of bipolar disorder and the pharmacology of mood-stabilizing and second-generation antipsychotic medications. Bipolar disorders are challenging and complex mental illnesses, and clinicians need all the help they can get in managing the effects of these illness on their patients' lives. Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorders aims to provide everything clinicians need to know to update their knowledge of this rapidly evolving field and ensure an evidence-based standard of care for this patient population.

This readable guide to the assessment and management of patients with bipolar disorder can help physicians keep abreast of dramatic and rapid advances of recent years and integrate them into their practice. Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders emphasizes recent controlled studies and FDA-approved indications and translates these data into the real world of clinical practice. The contributions of the eleven chapter authors from Stanford University reflect more than a decade of clinical research and treatment undertaken at that institution, including advances in diagnosis and interventions supported by controlled studies. They provide crucial information regarding diagnosis, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and treatment of patients from special populations -- such as children, women, and older adults -- and patients with particular challenging illness course such as rapid cycling.

This is the first book to provide quantitative assessment of potential benefit (number needed to treat) and risk (number needed to harm) for all approved treatments for bipolar disorder, providing clinicians with information needed to balance benefits and risks in order to render individualized state-of-the-art, evidence-based care. It describes all FDA-approved indications -- reviewing efficacy, safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, illness phase-specific dosing, and drug interactions. A chapter on multiphase treatment strategy explains crucial illness transition points and describes how these have been integrated with knowledge of illness phase in mood disorders. The book then demonstrates the relevance of this approach to therapeutics by providing: - An overview of pharmacotherapy that covers the emergence of evidence-based pharmacotherapy and number-needed-to-treat and -harm analyses.- Guidelines to managing acute manic and mixed episodes that include evidence-based assessments of lithium, divalproex, carbamazepine, and second-generation antipsychotics.- Coverage of acute major depressive episodes in bipolar disorders that outlines four tiers of treatment for this most pervasive illness phase with the fewest approved treatments.- Discussion of the longer-term management of bipolar disorders, including reviews of controlled trials of recently approved pharmacotherapies such as lamotrigine, olanzapine, aripiprazole, and adjunctive quetiapine. - A review of the use of mood stabilizers and second-generation antipsychotics, often in combinations, as well as the controversial role of adjunctive antidepressants in treating patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorders. - Description of important advances in evidence-based adjunctive psychotherapeutic interventions in bipolar depression, and bipolar maintenance treatment.

Comprehensive in scope, yet readily accessible for application to clinical practice, the book includes summary tables, quick-reference lists of clinical pearls, and case studies to make its content more relevant. Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders is the ideal source for integrating recent research into everyday practice.

Despite works published as recently as 2002, the continuing rapid evolution of new medications and adjunctive psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder has made the concise "Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder" essential for today's clinicians who want to stay abreast of the latest developments in treating this complex and challenging mental illness.

Meticulously referenced with numerous tables and illustrations, "Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder" offers a very timely and exciting perspective on new ways to treat bipolar disorder. After an overview, six succinct chapters written by experts review recent developments& mdash;emphasizing interventions supported by controlled studies& mdash;in the following areas: "Advances in treatment of patients with acute mania": discussing newer antipsychotics, which as a class are effective as primary treatments for acute mania, and have emerging potential roles in maintenance treatment, and acute bipolar depression; and anticonvulsants, some of which are effective for as primary treatments for acute mania or maintenance, and others of which although not primary treatments for bipolar disorders may provide benefits as adjuncts for comorbid conditions. "New developments in the treatment of acute bipolar depression": describing therapeutic options beyond mood stabilizers and highlighting that adjunctive use of antidepressants requires additional adequately powered controlled studies to support this common approach. "Techniques in the maintenance treatment of patients with bipolar disorder": including both medications and adjunctive psychosocial therapies, which together can help clinicians manage medication adverse effects andmaintain the therapeutic alliance, treatment adherence, and involvement of significant others to enhance outcomes. "Innovations in the treatment of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder": although no treatment has received FDA approval for the management of this challenging presentation, results of controlled trials are beginning to provide clinically relevant insights in to the treatment of patients with rapid cycling, offering hope for more effective future therapies. "The treatment of children and adolescents with bipolar disorder": no treatment has FDA approval for the treatment of pediatric patients with bipolar disorder and controlled data are limited, yet recent research is beginning to yield important new information about the diagnosis and management of children and adolescents with this illness or its putative prodromes. "Phenomenology and management of bipolar disorder in women": introducing important new information to enhance clinicians' understanding of the importance of accounting for gender differences and reproductive health in the treatment of women with bipolar disorder.

"Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Disorder" helps clinicians to better understand the utility of both older medications and important new treatment options as it highlights the need for additional research to ensure further progress in overcoming the challenges of caring for patients with bipolar disorder.