A preliminary double-blind study on the efficacy of carbamazepine in prophylaxis of manic-depressive illness

Abstract

A preliminary double-blind controlled study on the prophylactic effect of carbamazepine on recurrent manic-depressive psychotics was conducted with 22 patients using an inert placebo in ten subjects as a control drug. Carbamazepine in the dosage of 200-600 mg was administered for 1 year. Among the 22 carbamazepine subjects, carbamazepine was found to be effective in 60% of the cases and inert placebo in 22.2% (U-test, P less than 0.10). It is suggested that carbamazepine is a useful drug for the prophylaxis of manic-depressive illness.

Effects of Carbamazepine and Lithium on Affective Disorders

“…3] in 90 cases, and it was found that CBZ had antimanie and pro phylactic effects for bipolar disorder. The antimanie ef fect was confirmed by double-blind studies by Okuma et al [4,5] and by Ballengcr and Post [6,7], and the prophy lactic effect in a double-blind study by Okuma et al [8], Following these observations, the effects of CBZ on bipo lar disorder have been confirmed by many researchers throughout the world [9,10], and the therapeutic and pro-phylactic effects of CBZ are almost established at the present time.…”

The Lithium Ion: A Foundation for Psychopharmacological Specificity

“…Most studies found it to be comparable to lithium in effectiveness, except for three studies (Okuma et al 1981;Lerer et al 1987;Watkins et al 1987). However, for prophylactic treatment, according to a recent meta-analysis of this literature (Dardennes et al 1995), the effectiveness of carbamazepine remains to be established.…”

Carbamazepine in Treatment of the Violent Psychotic Patient

“…double-blind controlled trial showing prophylacti c e ffec ts of ca r bamazepine in 60 % and placebo in 22.2% of their patients (V-test, p < 0.10) ( 17). Kishimoto et at.…”