Dr. Wayne Macfadden has practiced psychiatry for more than 25 years and takes a particular interest in bipolar disorder, a topic on which he has published extensively. Dr. Wayne Macfadden has authored several articles on the efficacy of the drug quetiapine as a monotherapy for bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a highly recurrent and sometimes chronic mood disorder that presents as an alternation between periods of deep depression and periods of mania. It normally manifests in two forms: bipolar I, in which symptoms of depression exceed those of mania by a ration of about 3:1; and bipolar II, in which patients spend even more time in the depressive pole than the manic pole. Some bipolar patients experience rapid cycling or mood shifts between mania and depression that occur very quickly, usually within the course of a few hours. The mood swings associated with bipolar disorder can play havoc with a person’s energy and ability to function normally. While bipolar mania has dramatically disruptive effects, bipolar depression has been found to be even more detrimental and burdensome on patients and their families and loved ones.
Bipolar depression cannot generally be treated by antidepressants such as monotherapies (treatment of a condition using a single drug), unlike so-called “unipolar” major depression. However, the atypical antipsychotic drug quetiapine (commonly branded as Seroquel), usually recommended for treating the symptoms of schizophrenia, has been found to be effective as a monotherapy in treating bipolar depression. Quetiapine also appears to produce lower rates of treatment-emergent mania when used to treat bipolar depression, suggesting that it might be an effective mood stabilizer. It also appears to be effective in treating bipolar I and bipolar II depression, and for patients with or without histories of rapid cycling.
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