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Mood Stabilizers

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Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology

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Synonyms

Long-term treatments for bipolar disorder

Definition

Mood stabilizers are pragmatically defined by their clinical efficacy in bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a complex condition, as it is expressed as episodic periods of contrasting mood disturbance – mania and depression – and its long-term or maintenance treatment must prevent new episodes of both. Any medicine that achieves this can be said to be a mood stabilizer.

Pharmacological Properties

History

The first mood stabilizer was lithium. It was discovered over 60 years ago by guided serendipity. Lithium salts of urea were found by the Australian doctor John Cade to be sedative in animals. He had reasoned that urea itself was an active component, but realized that, in fact, lithium was unexpectedly tranquilizing. Immediate trials in patients with mania suggested acute efficacy, and subsequent experience showed that lithium could markedly modify the course of bipolar disorder (then called manic depression) in the long...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Warneford Lande, OX3 7JX, Headington, Oxford, UK

    Guy M. Goodwin

Authors
  1. Guy M. Goodwin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guy M. Goodwin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Behavioural Pharmacology, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry P049, London, United Kingdom

    Ian P. Stolerman

  2. Brown Medical School, Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Lawrence H. Price

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Goodwin, G.M. (2014). Mood Stabilizers. In: Stolerman, I., Price, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_259-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27772-6_259-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27772-6

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