The likelihood of subsequent depression or mania/hypomania remains high after an index manic/hypomanic episode, particularly for 6 to 8 months after recovery.8,17 Natural history data suggest that, during the year that follows a first lifetime mania, approximately 40% of patients experience a second manic episode.8 A second lifetime mania might be especially likely in patients whose index episode involved mood-congruent psychosis, low premorbid work functioning, and an initial manic episode, as opposed to a mixed episode17 or early age at onset.8
In the absence of randomized, placebo-controlled studies of maintenance pharmacotherapy after a first lifetime manic episode, clinical judgment often drives decisions about the duration of continuing pharmacotherapy after initial symptoms resolve. The Texas Medication Algorithm Project for BD advises that:
General practice at this time is lifetime medication following 2 manic episodes, or 1 episode if it was a severe episode and/or significant family history of bipolar or major depressive disorder is present. For a first episode of bipolar mania with no family history of bipolar or major depressive disorders, medication tapering and discontinuation may be considered after the continuation period is completed (usually 6 months in remission), depending on the severity of the first episode, surrounding factors, and prodromal history.18
Similarly, in the most recent (2004) Expert Consensus Guideline Series for the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder,19 84% of practitioner−respondents favored indefinite mood stabilizer therapy after a second lifetime manic episode. No recommendation was made about the duration of maintenance pharmacotherapy after a first lifetime manic/hypomanic episode.
Avoid or reintroduce an antidepressant if depression recurs after a first mania?
Controversies surrounding antidepressant use in BD are extensive; detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this review (Goldberg and Ghaemi provided a broader discussion of risks and benefits of antidepressants in BD20). Although the main clinical concern regarding antidepressant use was, at one time, the potential to induce mania or accelerate the frequency of recurrent episodes, more recent, empirical studies suggest that the greater risk of using antidepressants for BD is lack of efficacy.10,21
If a careful longitudinal history and clinical evaluation reveal that an initial manic episode heralds the onset of BD, decisions about whether to avoid an antidepressant (as opposed to using other, more evidence-based interventions for bipolar depression) depend on a number of variables, including establishing whether the index episode was manic or hypomanic; ruling out current subthreshold mixed features; and clarifying how recently mania developed. Decisions about future antidepressant use (or avoidance) might be less clear if an index manic/hypomanic episode was brief and self-limited once the antidepressant was stopped.
Although some experts eschew antidepressant monotherapy after such occurrences, there is no body of literature to inform decisions about the safety or efficacy of undertaking a future antidepressant trial in such patients. That said, reasonable judgment probably includes several considerations:
• Re-exposure to the same antidepressant that was associated with an induction of mania is likely riskier than choosing a different antidepressant; in general, purely serotonergic antidepressants or bupropion are considered to pose less risk of mood destabilization than is seen with an SNRI or tricyclic antidepressant.
• After a manic episode, a subsequent antidepressant trial generally shouldn’t be attempted without concurrent anti-manic medication.
• Introducing any antidepressant is probably ill-advised in the recent (~2 months) aftermath of acute manic/ hypomanic symptoms.22
• Patients and their significant other should be apprised of the risk of emerging symptoms of mania or hypomania, or mixed features, and should be familiar with key target symptoms to watch for. Prospective mood charting can be helpful.
• Patients should be monitored closely both for an exacerbation of depression and recurrence of mania/hypomania symptoms.
• Any antidepressant should be discontinued promptly at the first sign of psychomotor acceleration or the emergence of mixed features, as defined by DSM-5.
Psychoeducation and forecasting
Functional recovery from a manic episode can lag behind symptomatic recovery. Subsyndromal symptoms often persist after a full episode subsides.
Mania often is followed by a depressive episode, and questions inevitably arise about how to prevent and treat these episodes. Because the median duration of a manic episode is approximately 13 weeks,23 it is crucial for patients and their immediate family to recognize that recovery might be gradual, and that it will likely take time before she (he) can resume full-time responsibilities at work or school or in the home.
Today, a patient who is hospitalized for severe acute mania (as Ms. J was, in the case vignette) seldom remains an inpatient long enough to achieve remission of symptoms; sometimes, she (he) might continue to manifest significant symptoms, even though decisions about the “medical necessity” of ongoing inpatient care tend to be governed mainly by issues of safety and imminent danger. (This web exclusive Table20,24,25 provides considerations when making the transition from the acute phase to the continuation phase of treatment.)
