showed a trendp = 0.34
In one recent randomized, double-blind study comparing the prophylactic efficacy of immediate-release CBZ and lithium in bipolar disorder, lithium was superior to immediate-release CBZ in terms of 2.5-year hospitalization rates (lithium, 26%; immediate-release CBZ, 62%; p = 0.012) in patients with “classical” bipolar I disorder (without mood-incongruent features and psychiatric comorbidity and without mixed states; n = 67), while immediate-release CBZ showed a trend toward being more effective (2.5-year hospitalization rates: lithium, 44%; immediate-release CBZ, 31%; p = 0.34) in the more heterogeneous “nonclassical” subgroup of patients (n = 104).These findings suggest that patients with classical features benefit more from prophylactic therapy with lithium, while those with nonclassical features may benefit more from prophylaxis with CBZ, which appears to provide a broader spectrum of activity ( Greil et al 1998 ; Kleindienst et al 2000 ).