Book Review Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy: Caring for the Patient Edited by Hagop S. Akiskal and Mauricio Tohen. 399 pp. Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons, 2006. $90. 0-470-85607-6
Akiskal and Tohen's Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy aims to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive review of the principal treatments for bipolar affective disorder. Also known as manic depression, bipolar affective disorder has been ranked by the World Health Organization as the eighth greatest cause of global illness in industrialized nations. The disorder often appears early in life (the median age at onset is 19 years), and although useful therapies have been available for decades, rates of recurrence are high. The disease is chronic and associated with extremely high levels of disability and morbidity, as well as increased risks of death from suicide and cardiovascular disease. The two main forms of bipolar affective disorder (type I and type II, defined according to whether the “up” episodes are manic or hypomanic) affect about 4% of the population of industrialized countries. Moreover, even though the concept of a spectrum of bipolar disorders is still somewhat controversial, up to 50% of persons with so-called unipolar depression have symptoms suggestive of bipolarity. Given the ubiquity of depression and the potential that antidepressants have to worsen unrecognized bipolar disorder, a book that provides authoritative reviews of recent advances in the treatment of bipolar disorder should be of interest to all health care professionals.