Does olanzapine work for bipolar disorder?
Bipolar affective disorder is a severe and frequent mental
illness in the North American population, distinguished by periods of mania, depression
and "mixed episodes" (or "dysphoric mania": a blend of
manic and depressed symptoms). Bipolar disorder is usually treated with lithium.
However, many people fail to respond to lithium or may have side effects and
other drugs are often used to treat bipolar disorder.
Antipsychotic drugs are frequently used to treat acute manic
episodes. One drug, which is now widely used to treat mania in bipolar
disorder, is olanzapine.
Recently several studies have compared the effectiveness of
olanzapine in long-term bipolar disorder in patients who have previously not
had an acceptable response to lithium or valproate.
These studies revealed when compared to lithium, people who
took olanzapine did have fewer episodes of mania and had decent sleep
patterns, but they also suffered from weight
gain.
Based on these studies it is hard to make any judgments
about olanzapine. The drug does lower rate of mania worsening and recycling,
but you also gain weight.
If you have failed to respond to lithium, then olanzapine may be an ideal drug
for mania. The only way around weight gain is to watch your diet,
eat less and exercise
more.
