Treatment helps to keep your mood constant and reduce the symptoms of mania or depression. For manic episodes, you may be prescribed an antipsychotic medicine to treat your symptoms before you're given a mood stabilising medicine. Side-effects of these medicines include; weight gain and dizziness. To help prevent mood swings, your doctor may prescribe mood stabilising medicines e. g. lithium. It can take up to 3 months for lithium to start working properly. Side-effects include; weight gain, tremors and feeling thirsty. Your doctor may also advise a short course of antidepressants to treat depression. There is a risk that you switch from depressive to manic symptoms when taking these medicines. Some can be taken with mood stabilisers to stop this happening. Side-effects can include: palpitations, sleep problems and confusion.

Attribution: BUPA

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