What are Antimanic agents?

Antimanic agents help to calm episodes of mania in people with bipolar disorder, and they may be used
in other conditions where people periodically display periods of great excitement or euphoria, delusions,
or over-activity. The term mood stabilizer may also be used to describe an antimanic agent, although
technically, antimanic agents are those mood stabilizers that only treat episodes of mania, not
depression. Three mood stabilizers that are effective at treating both mania and depression are
lamotrigine, lithium, and quetiapine.

Lithium, some anticonvulsants (such as carbamazepine, lamotrigine, valproate), and some atypical
antipsychotics (for example, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine) are the most common drugs used for
their mood stabilizing effects and in the control of mania.

Although experts do not fully understand how antimanic agents work to stabilize episodes of mania, it is
believed that they either influence levels of chemical neurotransmitters in the brain, such as dopamine,
GABA, norepinephrine, or serotonin; or, for anticonvulsants, reduce the excitability of nerve impulses in
the brain. An effective antimanic agent should:

Reduce acute episodes of mania to a more manageable level

Relieve symptoms such as agitation, inappropriate behavior, and sleep problems

Prevent symptom relapses and hospitalization.

Side effects vary depending on the type of antimanic agent used.