Three Categories of Mood Stabilizers which are used in Clinical Practice.

Abstract

In the patients with bipolar disorder, mood stabilizers would be used to diminish swings of the mood. Antipsychotics, lithium and anticonvulsants are used as mood stabilizers. The exact mechanisms of these drugs in controlling the mood swings are not clear specifically with regard to antipsychotics. These drugs have effects on dopamine receptors in the pathways related to motivation and emotion, in some parts of the brain like nucleus accumbens, amygdala and hippocampus. The mechanism of action of lithium is different from antipsychotics. Lithium protects neurons from insults and inhibits cellular apoptosis process by glycogen synthase kinase-3b inhibition or increasing anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2 production. Inhibiting the inositol-1-phosphatase by lithium, cause it to have effects on inositol phosphate second messengers production. Dentate gyrus new neurons growth, will be promoted by lithium either. Lithium also decreases the suicide risk in the patients.