Mood Stabilizers: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Them

Topics: Antipsychotics | Aripiprazole | Asenapine | Bipolar Depression | Bipolar Disorder | Bipolar II | Cariprazine | Lithium | Lurasidone | Mania | Medication adherence | Mood Stabilizers | olanzapine | Oxcarbazepine | Pharmacology | Pharmacology Tips | Psychopharmacology | Psychopharmacology Tips | Quetiapine | Research | Research Update | Risperidone | safety | Saphris | Side Effects

Review of: Bai Y et al, J Clin Psychopharmacol 2020;40(2):167–179 STUDY TYPE: Combined meta-analysis and literature review of placebo-controlled trials Medication adherence is an ongoing struggle in bipolar disorder, and it’s compounded by the fact that our patients often don’t advertise their ­non-adherence. While numbers vary, reviews general

An Antipsychotic Patch

Topics: Antipsychotic | Asenapine | News of Note | Patch | Saphris | Secuado | Transdermal

Asenapine (Saphris) is now available as a transdermal patch, Secuado. The patch showed efficacy in a large 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose study in 616 adult patients with schizophrenia. Transdermal medications are thought to reduce side effects by avoiding “first-pass” metabolism in the GI tract. This is unlikely to be an adva