BIPOLAR DISORDER: a new holistic approach

Treatment of mood disturbance in bipolar disorder is undergoing a paradigm shift. Traditionally, drug therapy has been focussed on efficacy in acute mania or depression. Now psychiatrists are realising the need to evaluate drug treatments from other perspectives, Their full effects as acute and mood-stabilising agents, side effect profiles, effects on neurocognitive functioning, quality of life, and on psychosocial functioning, are also important when considering therapy.

Bipolar disorder, the condition where mood swings between varying degrees of mania, hypomania, mixed states, depression and major depressive disorder, is now the sixth leading cause of disability according to the World Health Organization (1). But although bipolar disorder is as common as diabetes, much of it still goes unrecognised and inadequately treated. Official estimates put prevalence at between 1 to 4 per cent of the population but some researchers believe the real figure is closer to 10 per cent if the whole spectrum of bipolar disorder is included (2).

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