Introduction
In treatment of acute mania benzodiazepines are often used as an adjuvant with mood stabilizers, classical and atypical antipsychotics. They also are used as a treatment alternative during medication changes. In this study the role of benzodiazepines as a treatment alternative in manic inpatients and relation with demographic and clinical aspects has been evaluated.
METHODS
Data was collected using a form evaluating demographic, clinical and treatment characteristics. Records of 435 patients with bipolar mania who were hospitalized during the year of 2008 from 15 units were included in the study. The data for treatment preferences obtained from the collaborative study on the acute management of bipolar mania in 2004 were compared to the data of the present study.
RESULTS
The incidence of benzodiazepine use as first, second and third choice is 27.5%, 22.5%, 32.3% respectively. This percentage of benzodiazepine use was 26.8% in men compared with 28.5% in woman. There was no relationship between benzodiazepine use and age, duration of disease, the total number of episodes (p>0.05) but there was a statistically significant relationship with time of hospitalization (p=0.010). On the other hand rapid cycling features (p=0.043), psychotic symptoms (p=0.024) and treatment before hospitalization was related with Young Mania Scale though use of antidepressants before hospitalization, severity of the episode was not.
DISCUSSION
Those findings are concordant with the literature that using benzodiazepines helps sedating patients faster until other medications start to work and they are useful augmenting other treatment options.