Bipolar disorder, lithium, and the task ahead

Abstract

Our lead article this month covers a study by Lähteenvuo et al. that addresses a topic that should be of interest to all of our readers: what is the real‐world effectiveness of different drug treatments for bipolar disorder? This paper would be important at any time, but its appearance at this moment seems particularly fortuitous, in light of a recent opinion piece by Post in the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the most influential journals in medicine. In his piece, Post draws an analogy to cancer in formulating his plea for a more aggressive approach to the management of bipolar disorder in order to prevent its “malignant transformation.”