Association of antipsychotics and mood stabilizers for treatment of mania

Objective Given the complex nature and frequent comorbidities of bipolar disorder (BD), polypharmacy is often used to achieve and maintain remission. In clinical practice, this is frequently the rule rather than the exception. Although research on BD uncommonly involves controlled clinical studies for combination therapies, clinicians nonetheless utilize polypharmacy as the best clinical treatment. A selective review of the literature for the best use of combination therapies, chiefly antipsychotics and mood stabilizers, has been carried out in order to offer rational indications.