Lamotrigine: open longitudinal study on rapid cycling Authors: Walden J, et al. Title: An open longitudinal study of patients with bipolar rapid cycling treated with lithium or lamotrigine for mood stabilization. Reference: Bipolar disorders 2000;2:336-9. Purpose: A preliminary study of the potential efficacy of lamotrigine in the treatment of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. Study design: Randomized, naturalistic, follow-up study. Follow up: 1 year. Patients: 14 patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder (7 lamotrigine, 7 lithium). Treatment: Lamotrigine titrated to 100–450 mg/day, lithium 0.6–1.0 mmol/L. Results: Rapid cycling ceased in 85.7% of patients treated with lamotrigine compared with 42.9% of patients treated with lithium. The total number of relapses was 11 in the lamotrigine group and 30 in the lithium group.
