PSYREFLECT

Issue #68

August 27, 2026

#1Research

Steeper on current exposure than on cumulative: valproate and PCOS in a Danish register

The authors state their own conclusion this way: valproate exposure was associated with an increased risk of polycystic ovary syndrome in women with bipolar disorder or epilepsy, with the strongest associations observed for current cumulative exposure and additional risk apparent at high cumulative dosages, while overall cumulative exposure showed a less clear dose-response pattern.

bipolar disordervalproatepolycystic ovary syndromeregister study
4 minRead analysis
#2Research

Benefit-risk arithmetic for monthly aripiprazole: the harm column was built from relapses

The authors conclude that "Data suggest a favorable benefit-risk profile for AOM 400 versus placebo as a long-term maintenance treatment for BP-I", and all four of the paper's benefit-harm ratios are built on who stopped attending, while the akathisia in 21.2% of patients and the weight gain in 23.5% are printed one table earlier and never enter them.

bipolar disorderaripiprazolemaintenance treatmentnumber needed to treat
4 minRead analysis
#3Tool

Counted by the decade: the lithium renal algorithm and the patient who pays over forty years

The sentence the authors placed in their conclusion and not in their abstract: lithium treatment should neither be withheld nor continued reflexively solely on the basis of renal concerns, and what replaces the reflex is an individualized, trajectory-based assessment that balances substantial therapeutic benefit against renal risk, preserving lithium's role as a first-line treatment while safeguarding long-term patient health.

lithiumchronic kidney diseasemonitoring algorithmbipolar maintenance
5 minRead analysis
#4Industry

Eleven cards out of 127: what Russian psychiatrists entered as the reason for changing bipolar treatment

A switch or augmentation of therapy is required by no less than a third of patients taking antipsychotics, the author concludes on pages 31 to 32, and quetiapine is perceived by psychiatrists as a highly effective and well tolerated antipsychotic with a broad spectrum of action going beyond the official indications; his own closing sentence adds that doctors' ideas about the antiresistant properties of the drug require confirmation in real clinical practice and in randomised trials. The article is sponsored by NovaMedica, and a patient entered the programme only if the treating doctor had already decided on quetiapine.

bipolar disorderprescribing practiceRussiaantipsychotics
4 minRead analysis
#5Industry

Two outcomes and nothing else: what Japan's national claims database counts as a result in bipolar disorder

The authors' head conclusion is that mono- and combination therapy exhibited substantial heterogeneity in their effectiveness for preventing psychiatric hospitalisation, and that hospitalisation, together with hospitalisation of any cause, is the whole of what this publication measures.

bipolar disorderhealth policyclaims databaselithium
4 minRead analysis
#6Resource

Four weeks, three months, two years: NICE CG185 times every taper and sets no threshold for planned withdrawal

The guideline times every taper to the week and specifies immediate withdrawal when the liver or the blood count says so; for planned stopping of maintenance treatment, sections 1.7 and 1.10 name no threshold in episodes or months of remission and leave the moment inside a required conversation.

bipolar disorderclinical guidelinesmaintenance treatmentlithium
4 minRead analysis
Issue #68 | PsyReflect