How do novel bipolar disorder agents compare to traditional therapies?

Join Julie Carbray, APRN, PhD, PMHNP-BC, clinical professor of psychiatry and nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago as she discusses how newer medications are revolutionizing bipolar disorder care by addressing the limitations of traditional treatments. Learn about innovative agents and explore promising solutions for mixed states and the anxious subtype of bipolar illness. 
 

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Read the Transcript: 

Psych Congress Network: How do newer agents and strategies compare to traditional treatments? 

Julie Carbray, PhD: Some of the newer medications available for patients with bipolar illness are addressing, uh, some of the tolerability effects that we, we have struggled with in the past. For instance, there's a newer mechanism of action that's taking a look at endogenous opioid receptors that are involved with hunger and feeling satisfied. One of the newer agents is really acting on those systems, and we believe that that's probably helping for patients to not gain weight as they did on some of the other agents. Other agents seem to be addressing mixed states of bipolarity or more depressive components of bipolar illness. And the challenge with the treatment of bipolar illness is that you may have a depressive state, you may have an acute manic state, mixed states, or even the anxious subtype of bipolar illness. So all that variability under one cluster of a diagnosis offers a challenge because, to date, many of our medications that we use in this disease state can effectively treat mania, might effectively treat a bipolar depressive episode. We really don't have a lot yet that cares for that anxious subtype or a mixed subtype of bipolar illness. Newer medications are addressing mechanisms of action that might better target mixed states or anxious subtypes without elevating the risk for hypomania or exacerbating depressive episodes. And so newer medications give us more options across the spectrum of bipolar illness in addressing those subtypes of how patients present to us with their symptoms.

Julie A. Carbray, PhD, PMHNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC, APRN, is a clinical professor of psychiatry and nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr Carbray holds her PhD (93) and Master of Science (88) degrees from Rush University, Chicago, and her Bachelor of Science (87) degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.