Suicide Risk and Treatments for Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Baldessarini and Tondo discuss suicide risk and treatments for patients with bipolar disease. Bipolar disorder proves fatal in a high proportion of patients from complications of risk-taking behavior, comorbid stress-sensitive medical illnesses, and especially suicide. Long-term use of lithium is the only treatment consistently associated with much lower rates of suicide and life-threatening suicide attempts in bipolar disorder. Differential protective effects of specific mood-altering agents against bipolar depression are likely to be important for reducing suicide risk, but relevant direct comparisons are rare.