LITHIUM AND SODIUM VALPROATE COMBINATION THERAPY VERSUS MONOTHERAPY IN TREATMENT OF BIPOLAR DISORDERS: AN OBSERVATIONAL COHORT STUDY
Dr. Neeli Uma Jyothi, Mounica. Bollu*, Sk. Faizan Ali, D. Sri Chaitanya and M. Chiranjeevi
ABSTRACT
Background: Bipolar disorder is one of the lifelong psychiatric illness affecting the population. Lithium and sodium valproate are each recommended as a monotherapy for preventing relapses in patients with bipolar disorders and are sometimes used in combination. However combination and monotherapy have never been compared rigorously. Aim: To compare the effectiveness of combination therapy
of lithium and sodium valproate with the monotherapy in the treatment of bipolar disorders in the clinical practice. Methods: An observational cohort study was performed in the psychiatric hospital settings among the individuals who were diagnosed with BPAD and randomly allocated to 3 groups among which one group received the lithium alone and another group received sodium valproate monotherapy and a third group with a combination of lithium and sodium valproate during the period from jan 2015 to march 2015. Results: A total of 75 participants were included in the study,among which 25 received the lithium monotherapy and 25 received the sodium valproate monotherapy .combination of lithium and sodium valproate was given to 25 patients.from the study ,it was found that the reduction in the symptoms and better prognosis was observed among the participants who received the combination therapy. Conclusion: In daily clinical practice ,treatment with combination of lithium and sodium valproate was found to be superior to individual monotherapy.
Keywords: Bipolar Disorder, Lithium, Sodium Valproate, Treatment.
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