Authors: Walden J, et al. Title: An open longitudinal study of patients with bipolar rapid cycling treated with lithium or lamotrigine for mood stabilization.
Reference: Bipolar disorders 2000;2:336-9.
Purpose: A preliminary study of the potential efficacy of lamotrigine in the treatment of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder.
Study design: Randomized, naturalistic, follow-up study.
Follow up: 1 year.
Patients: 14 patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder (7 lamotrigine, 7 lithium).
Treatment: Lamotrigine titrated to 100–450 mg/day, lithium 0.6–1.0 mmol/L.
Results: Rapid cycling ceased in 85.7% of patients treated with lamotrigine compared with 42.9% of patients treated with lithium. The total number of relapses was 11 in the lamotrigine group and 30 in the lithium group.