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Lamotrigine Found to Prevent Relapse in Bipolar II Disorder: Presented at WCP

By Bruce Sylvester
Special to DG News

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN -- August 29, 2002 -- Patients treated with lamotrigine for bi-polar II disorder appear to have significantly fewer depressive and hypomanic episodes, and significant improvement in global functioning, compared to six months prior to treatment.

The results were presented here at the 12^th World Congress of Psychiatry.

Lead author, Erik Herman, MD, of the Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia, noted that lamotrigine--an established anti-convulsant--is under investigation for the treatment of bi-polar disorder. This study, he said, presents the results of open study of mood stabilizing effects of lamotrigine in 22 bipolar II patients.

The presence of hypomanic episode discriminates the bipolar disorder II from the periodic depressive disorder. In this sample of patients suffering from bipolar disorder II, the researchers evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of lamotrigine, a third-generation anticonvulsant, as a mood stabilizer.

The investigators measured the average number of depressive and hypomanic episodes six months before the treatment with lamotrigine 100 mg per day and during the six months of treatment. Likewise, they assessed global functioning using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale.

Subjects included 17 females and 5 males (15 rapid-cycling and 7 non-rapid-cycling) ranging in age between 20-44 years, with a mean of 25.5 years +/- 5.5 years. Mean age of illness onset was 19.8 +/- 2.1 years. Breakthrough depressive episodes were temporarily treated with paroxetine, and breakthrough hypomanic episodes with risperidone, Dr. Herman noted.

The average number of hypomanic BP II episodes fell from an average of 0.91 in the six months preceding the study to 0.36 during the study (p<0.001). The average number of depressive episodes fell from 1.73 to .45. Average GAF scores rose from 65 at baseline to 81.4 at endpoint.

Lamotrigine was well tolerated with no serious adverse events, Dr. Herman reported.

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