Open maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder spectrum patients who responded to gabapentin augmentation in the acute phase of treatment

This report describes the results of maintenance treatment with gabapentin in 18 previously refractory Bipolar Disorder patients who initially responded to augmentation with gabapentin during the acute phase of their therapy. Seven of the original 18 patients (39%) have continued to experience benefit from maintenance gabapentin treatment. Only three patients had to discontinue the gabapentin because of side effects. None of the 18 patients experienced an obvious significant adverse drug-drug interaction. Five of the patients discontinued gabapentin because of diminished clinical efficacy after a significant period of positive therapeutic effect. The results of this small open study suggest that gabapentin may be effective as an augmenting agent in the maintenance phase of treatment of some bipolar spectrum patients. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.