Psychopharmacology and the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Reviews the book, Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy: Caring for the Patient edited by Hagop S. Akiskal and Mauricio Tohen (see record 2006-00461-000), stating that it represents a great review of the state of the art of pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorder. The book reviews a wide variety of drugs that have been used, their historical development, and their believed mechanisms and sites of action, side effects, and relevant literature. The work clarifies the limitations and current problems posed by the pharmacotherapy technique in the treatment of this population of patients. It emphasizes the relevance, importance, and efficacy of psychological interventions and the importance of integrating these interventions and related science in competent treatment of individuals with bipolar disorder and their family members. The editors deserve credit for simultaneously valuing the tremendous contribution of pharmacological interventions in the treatment of bipolar disorder and recognizing the research demonstrated and conceptual limitations of medications in this regard. They deserve much credit for recruiting a wide variety of authors who could emphasize those techniques, which must be concomitantly applied with pharmacotherapy to have modern, evidence-based, competent, ethical, and effective treatment for this group of disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)