Assessing side effects of pharmacotherapy treatment of bipolar disorder: a 20-year review of the literature.
This 20-year map of side-effect checklists gives BCBAs a ready list of tools to pair with behavioral data when clients take bipolar meds.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors read every paper they could find on bipolar meds from 1986 to 2006.
They looked at how doctors checked for side effects like weight gain, tremors, or sleep loss.
The review does not test any new treatment. It only maps the tools people used to watch for problems.
What they found
Doctors used many different checklists and lab tests.
No single tool was used by everyone.
The paper lists the names of the forms but gives no scores or success rates.
How this fits with other research
Huguenin (2000) also reviewed drug side effects, but for kids with autism. Both papers agree: watch closely and use more than one measure.
Kaur et al. (2025) came later and looked at a newer design called consecutive controlled case series. That method was rare in 2006, so the older review could not include it.
Dowdy et al. (2022) gives new ways to spot missing studies in a review. Lecavalier et al. (2006) did not use these tools, so hidden papers may have been missed.
Amore et al. (2011) built a brand-new tool for depression. L et al. only described old tools, so the new FAD adds fresh options today.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with bipolar disorder who take meds, this paper is a menu of side-effect checklists you can pick from. Pair any of these tools with your daily behavior data to catch problems early.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A substantial literature on the effective treatment of bipolar disorder has begun to appear, particularly in the last 20 years. The majority of treatments studied have employed medications, particularly mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics and antidepressants. Most treatments produce side effects and medications are no exception. A review of assessment methods used to evaluate side-effect profiles is presented, along with author interpretations of these data in terms of cost and benefits. Additionally, a discussion of the implications for side-effect monitoring and management during short-term versus more long-term treatments is presented with respect to the general and intellectual disability populations. Summaries of relevant drug side-effect assessment practices are presented and future research directions are suggested.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2006 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2005.06.002