[Pharmacotherapy in depression during conversion from depression to mania in patients with bipolar affective...

Frequency of occurrence of mania directly after depression during antidepressant treatment with drugs of different pharmacological characteristics was examined. 210 depressive episodes (in 118 patients) finished with switching from depression to mania were analyzed. It was found that this phenomenon occurs more frequently during therapy with classical tricyclic drugs (amitryptyline, imipramine) than with the second generation antidepressant drugs. A group of patients in whom the switch from depression to mania occurs independently of the kind of applied therapy, was observed.