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Mood-stabilizers: the archeology of the concept
Margaret Harris1, Summit Chandran, Nabonita Chakraborty
1North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, Hergest Unit, Bangor, UK.
Objective:
To review the history of 'mood-stabilizing' treatments.
Method:
We have reviewed primary source data on the origin of the use of current mood-stabilizers.
Results:
This historical record on the origins of the mood-stabilizers points to a more ambiguous picture as regards pharmacotherapeutic specificity to bipolar disorders than is commonly conceded.
Conclusions:
This review suggests a need for alternative formulations of the concept of a mood-stabilizer. An alternative to the currently dominant paradigm is that these agents have treatment effects, which need to be matched more precisely with patients' constitutional types in order to optimize outcomes.