Efficacy in acute mania without sedation. Is it achievable?

摘要

Excessive Sedation is still commonly accepted as a desirable side effect of antimanic treatment. However, there is a clear dividing line between calming down an excited manic patient and deliberately inducing a clouding of consciousness. Recent evidence suggests that mania might rather be understood as a state of already diminished vigilance and excessive sedation may be counterproductive both in the short term as well as in the recovery phase. This notion is supported by the fact that non-sedative antipsychotics as haloperidol and aripiprazole have proven to be highly efficacious in treating acute bipolar mania.