A systematic review of the evidence on the treatment of rapid cycling bipolar disorder

Fountoulakis KN, Kontis D, Gonda X, Yatham LN. A systematic review of the evidence on the treatment of rapid cycling bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord 2013: 15: 115-137. (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S.Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Objective: Rapid cycling is associated with longer illness duration and greater illness severity in bipolar disorder. The aim of the present study was to review the existing published randomized trials investigating the effect of treatment on patients with rapid cycling bipolar disorder. Methods: A MEDLINE search was conducted using combinations of the following key words: bipolar and rapid or rapid-cycling or rapid cycling and randomized. The search was conducted through July 16, 2011, and no conference proceedings were included. Results: The search returned 206 papers and ultimately 25 papers were selected for review. Only six randomized, controlled trials specifically designed to study a rapid cycling population were found. Most data were derived from post hoc analyses of trials that had included rapid cyclers. The literature suggested that: (i) rapid cycling patients perform worse in the follow-up period; (ii) lithium and anticonvulsants have comparable efficacies; (iii) there is inconclusive evidence on the comparative acute or prophylactic efficacy of the combination of anticonvulsants versus anticonvulsant monotherapy; (iv) aripiprazole, olanzapine, and quetiapine are effective against acute bipolar episodes; (v) olanzapine and quetiapine appear to be equally effective to anticonvulsants during acute treatment; (vi) aripiprazole and olanzapine appear promising for the maintenance of response of rapid cyclers; and (vii) there might be an association between antidepressant use and the presence of rapid cycling. Conclusion: The literature examining the pharmacological treatment of rapid cycling is still sparse and therefore there is no clear consensus with respect to its optimal pharmacological management. Clinical trials specifically studying rapid cycling are needed in order to unravel the appropriate management of rapid cycling bipolar disorder

The International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) Treatment Guidelines for Bipolar Disorder in Adults (CINP-BD-2017), Part 1: Background and Methods of the Development of Guideline

Podeu consultar la part 2: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/116264Podeu consultar la part 3: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/116265Podeu consultar la part 4: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/116267Background: This paper includes a short description of the important clinical aspects of Bipolar Disorder with emphasis on issues that are important for the therapeutic considerations, including mixed and psychotic features, predominant polarity, and rapid cycling as well as comorbidity. Methods: The workgroup performed a review and critical analysis of the literature concerning grading methods and methods for the development of guidelines. Results: The workgroup arrived at a consensus to base the development of the guideline on randomized controlled trials and related meta-analyses alone in order to follow a strict evidence-based approach. A critical analysis of the existing methods for the grading of treatment options was followed by the development of a new grading method to arrive at efficacy and recommendation levels after the analysis of 32 distinct scenarios of available data for a given treatment option. Conclusion: The current paper reports details on the design, method, and process for the development of CINP guidelines for the treatment of Bipolar Disorder. The rationale and the method with which all data and opinions are combined in order to produce an evidence-based operationalized but also user-friendly guideline and a specific algorithm are described in detail in this paper