[Antidepressive therapy with carbamazepine (Finlepsin)].

For evaluation of the possible effect of Carbamazepine (CBZ) in the treatment of endogenous affective disorders 15 patients with manic-depressive illness including 2 cases in the manic and 13 cases in the depressive phase were studied in an open controlled clinical trial. Blood-levels of CBZ were determined weekly. Clinical response was measured by using different psychopathometric methods (SPES, AMP, HAMD, B-S [v. Zerssen], Beck-Inventory). In the two cases with dominant manic syndrome we observed good regression of psychopathological symptomatology during the first week of the treatment. In the same way good therapeutic results were found in the group of depressive patients. In 11 cases we observed improvement already in the first days of the treatment. There did not exist a defined correlation between blood-levels of CBZ and clinical responses of the patients. Side-effects were rare and disappeared during the further treatment after some days.