Mood disorders include extreme mood shifts and often require medication intervention as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA indicates that mood disorders prove a serious mental illness and include the diagnosis of depression, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. Mood stabilizer medications are termed as such for the intended effect they create in the individual taking the medicine. Few true mood stabilizers exist that the FDA has approved, however physicians use several medications off-label as part of a mood stabilizing regimen for their patients.
Lithium Carbonate
Lithium carbonate was the first FDA approved mood stabilizing medication in the United States. Physicians still use this medication today although lithium carbonate has some less pleasant potential side effects such as toxicity. Careful physician monitoring may prevent toxicity if lithium is used as the primary course of treatment for stabilizing mood. Lithium comes in two forms: carbonate and citrate. Carbonate has an immediate as well as a controlled release version table and the citrate is a liquid preparation. According to the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill or NAMI lithium treats the most difficult symptoms of mania and depression present in bipolar disorder.
Anticonvulstant Mood Stabilizers
MayoClinic.com indicates that divalproex sodium is a anti-convulsant mood stabilizer. Originally approved for treating seizure disorders, the FDA has since approved divalproex for treating the manic phase of bipolar disorder. The FDA has also approved Lamotrigine as a treatment for mood disorder. The website Northwest Behavioral Medicine indicates that although it remains unknown why the anticonvulsants work effectively for treating mood, the suspected reasoning indicates that these medications decrease over-stimulation of neurotransmitters that may cause the manic episodes.
Antipsychotic Mood Stabilizers
According to NAMI the FDA has also approved an antipsychotic medication known as olanzapine for treating mood symptoms. This medication has proved effective in treating the manic mood episode but has also shown to work effectively in maintaining mood to prevent relapse symptoms. Other anti-psychotics used off-label in conjunction with other medications for treating mood include aripiprazole and risperidone.
