New Antiepileptic Drugs in Psychiatry - Symposium, Schloss Elmau, March 1998. Special Topic Issue: Neuropsychobiology 1998, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Paperback)

Psychiatrists, neurobiologists and neuropharmacologists are offered a comprehensive view on basic and clinical aspects of older antiepileptic drugs and the most promising candidates of the new antiepileptic drugs, gabapentin and lamotrigine. International experts attempted with their presentations at the recent international symposium to give a state-of-the-art report on basic mechanisms of action as well as clinical data on efficacy and tolerability of old and new antiepileptic drugs in psychiatry. The data bring together the experience of the last two decades of clinical use of mood stabilisers, especially antiepileptic drugs. Insights into the benefits of the new drugs (especially gabapentin and lamotrigine) resulted in the first trials of differential, symptom and course of disease oriented treatment of patients with bipolar disorders (manic depressive illness), including a new realisation of the strengths and limitations of each mood stabilizer.